Drought in Iowa, August 1 to 23, 2001

In what became a rather tough growing season, drought developed in Iowa during the month of July, and became serious in August. During the early part of the growing season, excessive rainfall caused significant planting delays across the state. Once the crop was planted, cool and cloudy weather settled into the state slowing crop maturation. Once the warm weather finally arrived, rainfall tailed off significantly. Very little rainfall was reported during the month of July, however crops flourished with the moisture that was available. During the last half of July, temperatures began to soar into the 90s quite regularly. Temperatures were in the 90s to around 100 for most of the first 10 to 12 days of August with virtually no rainfall. Moisture reserves ran out during the critical time of pod filling for the soybeans and at the tasseling for the corn. Another factor that complicated the situation was the soil moisture profile over central and southwest Iowa. After two years of drought, rain began falling during the last fall of 2000 and continued into the spring of 2001. Though soil moisture was replenished in part, a layer of dry soil remained below the moistened layer, preventing root development below the moist layer. Reports indicate losses estimated between one third and one half in parts of central and southwest Iowa. A few locations had verifiable corn crop losses approaching 80%. Overall, losses for the season were closer to the 15% range. Damage to the corn crop was a little over $350 million, with about $225 million in losses to the soybean crop, and about a two million dollar loss to the oat crop.