IWXwx Posted August 3, 2023 Share Posted August 3, 2023 On 8/1/2023 at 9:12 AM, hawkeye_wx said: I hate drought, but there are two silver linings. I think I've mentioned before that drought knocks Japanese beetle numbers down to very low levels. There have been almost no beetles again this year. The other silver lining is this year's earlier drought has led to my crab apple trees being almost totally free of apple scab. I usually have trouble with bacterial leaf spot on my pepper plants, too, and I think the dryness of the foliage has helped keep the problem in check this year. I didn't realize that about beetles and drought, but I've noticed a sharp decline in the numbers in my garden this year, so it makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted August 3, 2023 Share Posted August 3, 2023 46 minutes ago, IWXwx said: I didn't realize that about beetles and drought, but I've noticed a sharp decline in the numbers in my garden this year, so it makes sense. I think the idea is the beetle larvae feed on turf roots, so when the weather is wet and the turf is lush, beetles thrive, but then during drought, when everything is baked and brown, there is very little for the larvae to eat so they die out. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted August 31, 2023 Share Posted August 31, 2023 A good part of eastern Iowa has been upgraded to extreme drought. After decent recovery in early August, my lawn is now baked and crunchy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SolidIcewx Posted August 31, 2023 Share Posted August 31, 2023 1 hour ago, hawkeye_wx said: A good part of eastern Iowa has been upgraded to extreme drought. After decent recovery in early August, my lawn is now baked and crunchy. Hopefully the storms in fall track through those parts. Rain is really needed. Crazy on the other side of the lake it’s been way too wet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chambana Posted August 31, 2023 Share Posted August 31, 2023 2 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said: A good part of eastern Iowa has been upgraded to extreme drought. After decent recovery in early August, my lawn is now baked and crunchy. Curious to see the expansion of the drought with another round of heat and no precipitation. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdIowPitMsp Posted August 31, 2023 Share Posted August 31, 2023 Neighbors mature white oak tree has succumbed to a suspected case of “Twolined Chestnut Borer” No doubt that 3 summers of drought caused the mortality. I’ll post detailed stats this weekend but J/J/A will finish with 5.79” of precipitation, against an average of 12.86” which is only 45% of normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Extreme drought has expanded across east-central Iowa. A couple spots of exceptional drought have popped in se MN and sw WI. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheeselandSkies Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 2 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said: Extreme drought has expanded across east-central Iowa. A couple spots of exceptional drought have popped in se MN and sw WI. Wow. I thought El Nino was supposed to prevent this? Then again it was supposed to prevent the Atlantic hurricane season, too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 18 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said: Extreme drought has expanded across east-central Iowa. A couple spots of exceptional drought have popped in se MN and sw WI. If the new Euro is correct another few weeks of waiting for rain are in order. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KokomoWX Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 On 9/8/2023 at 6:41 PM, cyclone77 said: If the new Euro is correct another few weeks of waiting for rain are in order. This weekend I am planting 37,000 square feet of grass. I need a half inch of rain every day for about three weeks or I'm going to be doing a lot of watering. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 4 hours ago, KokomoWX said: This weekend I am planting 37,000 square feet of grass. I need a half inch of rain every day for about three weeks or I'm going to be doing a lot of watering. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdIowPitMsp Posted September 21, 2023 Share Posted September 21, 2023 With the days quickly shortening I thought it was time to post an update on where we stand with the 3rd consecutive summer of flash drought in Minneapolis. The epic winter of 22/23 has blunted the YTD impact compared to last year. April 2023: 2.39” (-0.52” Ave 2.91”) May 2023: 1.62” (-2.29” Ave 3.91”) June 2023: 0.93” (-3.65” Ave 4.58”) July 2023: 2.57” (-1.49” Ave 4.05”) August 2023: 2.29” (-2.05” Ave 4.34”) September 2023: (Through 9/20) 0.64” (-1.35” Ave 1.99”) YTD: 17.79” (-7.44” Ave 25.23”) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhou Posted September 21, 2023 Share Posted September 21, 2023 3 hours ago, OrdIowPitMsp said: With the days quickly shortening I thought it was time to post an update on where we stand with the 3rd consecutive summer of flash drought in Minneapolis. The epic winter of 22/23 has blunted the YTD impact compared to last year. April 2023: 2.39” (-0.52” Ave 2.91”) May 2023: 1.62” (-2.29” Ave 3.91”) June 2023: 0.93” (-3.65” Ave 4.58”) July 2023: 2.57” (-1.49” Ave 4.05”) August 2023: 2.29” (-2.05” Ave 4.34”) September 2023: (Through 9/20) 0.64” (-1.35” Ave 1.99”) YTD: 17.79” (-7.44” Ave 25.23”) Maybe we can make it up again in the winter lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted September 21, 2023 Share Posted September 21, 2023 Exceptional drought, the highest level, is now expanding. Quad Cities NWS says this is the first time there has ever been exceptional drought in east-central Iowa (since 1999). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhou Posted September 21, 2023 Share Posted September 21, 2023 32 minutes ago, hawkeye_wx said: Exceptional drought, the highest level, is now expanding. Hopefully the next storm can help the drought situation a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowtie` Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 14 days to go from white to tan on the graphics. The beans here and my grass now match the drapes of the drought graphics for my county. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 As expected, there is improvement in the drought across the midwest where the good rain fell over the weekend. Chicagoland is almost entire out of it. The swath of exceptional drought in the MN/IA/WI tri-state area is gone. The only exceptional drought remaining in the midwest region is near Cedar Rapids. It's possible it could expand over CR in the next week or two as we get a bunch of 80s with no rain. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwohweather Posted September 28, 2023 Author Share Posted September 28, 2023 The Maumee River by my house is still incredibly low. The overcast, somewhat rainy weather of the last few days has helped some but it still is hardly kayakable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMADreamer Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 We had some thunder two nights ago but no measurable rain. Now with heat coming back I suspect things are going to get quite a bit worse here. It's already crispy, and the leaves have turned almost over night. We are probably going to need some serious winter to get back to normal at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted September 30, 2023 Share Posted September 30, 2023 2023 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 19 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said: 2023 Last night's run even drier. Looks like no rain for at least the first half of October. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted October 5, 2023 Share Posted October 5, 2023 We made it! The exceptional drought has expanded over Cedar Rapids. This is officially the worst drought this century. 2012 was worse over a much bigger area, but it has never been this bad in the Cedar Rapids area, specifically. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Posted October 5, 2023 Share Posted October 5, 2023 2 hours ago, hawkeye_wx said: We made it! The exceptional drought has expanded over Cedar Rapids. This is officially the worst drought this century. 2012 was worse over a much bigger area, but it has never been this bad in the Cedar Rapids area, specifically. Wow that is intense. Last year MBY was in a similar situation (D3 so it was not as bad as you are currently getting with D4). I had the big L right on top of me. What was so frustrating was that D0 / none was just a few miles away (your case is more widespread than what occurred here last summer). Hopefully things change soon for you. I hate droughts!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdIowPitMsp Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 Pretty big recovery in the Twin Cities metro. Last year was the driest September with 0.24” and October finished the same amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted October 19, 2023 Share Posted October 19, 2023 As expected, the latest drought map shows improvement where last week's heavy rain fell. The exceptional drought in the Cedar Rapids area is gone. A couple more good rain events are needed to chip away at the severe drought area. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkeye_wx Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 Terry Swails posted this in a recent blog post. Southeast Iowa is now 20-25" of rain below average since April 2022. Thanks to a couple big rain events in northern Illinois last summer, there is a near 30" difference between Ottumwa and Rockford. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone77 Posted November 25, 2023 Share Posted November 25, 2023 7 minutes ago, hawkeye_wx said: Terry Swails posted this in a recent blog post. Southeast Iowa is now 20-25" of rain below average since April 2022. Thanks to a couple big rain events in northern Illinois last summer, there is a near 30" difference between Ottumwa and Rockford. Must be making up for 2008 lol. Didn't realize southeast IA was that dry, wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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