Southeast Iowa is abnormally dry with areas of moderate drought, and so far this January less than normal precipitation has been recorded.

All of Washington County is currently abnormally dry. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has received trace amounts of precipitation while the first week of January a quarter of an inch is normal.

State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says how snowfall impacts drought conditions, “Typically snowfall and winter precipitation really doesn’t help Iowa’s moisture situation that much. A couple reasons being: one is winter is typically our driest time of the year, so even a normal winter doesn’t really bring all that much moisture; and secondly, soils are typically frozen from about the second week of December all the way through the end February, so whatever moisture we get isn’t really able to make its way to the soil. So this time we’re just kind of playing the waiting game now to get to next spring and the opportunity to replenish subsoil moisture levels and things of that nature at that time.” He says some run off from snow melts that finds its way to farm ponds can be beneficial, as southeast Iowa has had two dry years in a row.

For more information about the recent cold weather and the impact of snowfall, listen to the Washington Page with Hillaker here.