Drought has improved in parts of western and southern Iowa in August, while remaining severe in much of the Tama-Grundy area. GRAPHIC COURTESY OF U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR

There was not enough rainfall in recent weeks to significantly improve dry conditions across Iowa amid and a string of hot days with no rain this past week.

That’s why the federal Climate Prediction Center is less optimistic about drought lifting from most of the state in the coming months. In a Thursday, Aug. 17 report, the center predicted that drought would persist in most of the state through November.

“We’re not going to pick up — at least in the modeling — enough rainfall or precipitation in general to remove those drought conditions,” State Climatologist Justin Glisan said. “That will hold the drought map basically status quo.”

The new drought forecast is a change from three weeks ago, when it appeared that drought would lift from much of the state in the coming months.

The expectations of higher rainfall this month have come to fruition over wide areas of the Midwest, but the rain missed a lot of Iowa.

It has been concentrated in the first two weeks of August in roughly the southwest half of the state. Wide areas of western and southern Iowa have had at least double the normally expected rainfall, whereas wide areas of northeast Iowa have had less than half, according to Pete Boulay, an assistant state climatologist for Minnesota who gave an overview Thursday of the regional climate.

Overall drought in Iowa has remained roughly stagnant this month, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Dryness receded where there was rainfall and intensified where there wasn’t.

About 74% of the state is suffering from some measure of drought, according to the Aug. 17 report. That’s down from about 83% two weeks ago.

But the area of the state that has severe drought expanded 10%.

Complicating the situation is a heat wave of high temperatures approaching 100 degrees that was anticipated to start last weekend and last at least five days as a result of a high-pressure, atmospheric ridge lingering over Iowa.

“It’s a giant ridge,” Boulay said. “It means heat and dry for a lot of places.”