The weekly update to the US Drought Monitor was released yesterday and a number of locations in the state saw an improvement to the analyzed drought classification thanks to a cool and wet week for much of the state. For central Iowa, the "D0", which is the least severe drought classification, remained even after the big deluge of rain last week on the 12th. You may recall that Ames picked up over two inches with Boone with around four and some isolated amounts around six inches. How did that rainfall not erase the D0 classification? The featured chart looks at trailing precipitation departures for Boone. The big rain last week had a very positive impact on departures, but you can notice that the 91 and 365 day departures are still negative. Single and intense rain events often experience high amounts of runoff, which means less water enters the soil to recharge the needed soil moisture supply for crops. So such events can sometimes be not weighted heavily in the US Drought Monitor, which is an subjectively analyzed product by humans.

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