With some Southeast Iowa farmers beginning to need rain, last weekend’s weather brought some rain but maybe not much relief.
June, usually the wettest month, only saw about a third of its normal rainfall. Many Southeast Iowa farmers were beginning to see signs of stress going into the weekend.
Iowa State Extension Field Agronomist for Southeast Iowa, Virgil Schmitt, said the rain varied widely with some areas only receiving a few drops of rain, while others received an inch or even more.
"There were some ares near Sheraton, which is in South central Iowa, that actually got about three and half inches, with three inches in about thirty minutes. Of course most of that just ran off because it simply can't go down in the soil that rapidly, " Schmitt said.
He said some northern parts of the state experienced heavy rain, high winds, and hail. Though Schmitt added that there too, while some areas received heavy precipitation, others got very little.
At this time, Schmitt said, crops need an inch of rain a week and many places didn’t get even that. So many farmers will be right back where they were last week, in a few days.
