The weekly update to the Drought Monitor will be released later this morning and will likely continue to show a mixed status over Iowa with the northern half of the state generally in better shape, drought wise, than the southern half. One of the dry locations over southern Iowa is Ottumwa (SE of Des Moines). The featured chart presents trailing day precipitation departures along with the drought monitor analysis underlain. The rapid increases in 91 and 365 day departures are a tell-tale sign of the lack of significant precipitation events during what should be the wettest time of the season. The recent rains of June have only marginally helped the situation there and now with hot weather setting up shop for a few days, drought impacts will likely increase significantly.

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