116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Linn County is the driest it has been in a decade
Almost 84 percent of the county is experiencing extreme drought — the second-highest drought intensity
Brittney J. Miller
Aug. 31, 2023 1:29 pm
Following the hottest stretch of heat of the summer so far, Linn County is the driest it has been in more than a decade.
Almost 84 percent of the county is experiencing extreme drought — the second-highest drought intensity — according to Thursday’s U.S. Drought Monitor report. Last week, 100 percent of the county was in severe drought, the third-highest intensity.
The last time Linn County experienced this much drought was October 2012, said meteorologist Brian Pierce of the National Weather Service Quad Cities bureau. At that time, 94 percent of the county was in extreme or exceptional drought.
“The heat did not help any at all, and the fact that we have not had any appreciable rain for quite a while is compounding the problem,” he said.
Cedar Rapids has only received 14.4 inches of rain this year so far. At this time last year, when Iowa was also in drought, the city had received about 20 inches. Normal precipitation at this point in the year is around 26 inches.
About 18 percent of Iowa is experiencing extreme drought, an increase from last week’s 5 percent. Northeast Iowa has been hit hardest. Severe drought is impacting a third of the rest of the state, swallowing much of Eastern Iowa. Only 0.5 percent of Iowa is not experiencing any dry or drought conditions.
Persistent dry weather has put continued stress on crops, especially soybeans, according to this week’s Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report released Monday. There have also been multiple reports of disease entering fields. The hot and humid weather is also taking a toll on livestock, with several deaths reported across the state.
Corn and soybean conditions each declined 6 percentage points to 54 percent and 53 percent, good to excellent respectively. Pasture condition rated 23 percent good to excellent.
Only about a third of the state’s topsoil had adequate moisture levels.
“Our crops and pastures could certainly use some badly needed rain,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said in the report.
There are some chances for rain next week after another heat wave likely comes through Labor Day weekend, Pierce said. But Iowa isn’t out of the woods yet.
“The overall trend is pointing toward warmer and drier (conditions) than normal to about the middle of September,” he said.
Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com