The state of Iowa has been in a drought for several months, and State Climatologist Justin Glisan points to the contributing factors.

Glisan tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the state is dealing with four years of drought, but has gotten short term improvements over the last couple of weeks, pushing green plants up a lot faster with warmer temperatures. He describes where Iowa begins to see the longer term impacts.

“Are in streamflow values being very low, particularly low for this time of year as we expect more snow melt, more precipitation, more runoff into our stream systems.”

Glisan says that in a multi-year drought, there are signs of a short term improvement but when the state hits a period of warmer and drier patterns, then drought intensification becomes more evident.