Despite more rainfall in the past couple of weeks, drought conditions remain unchanged across a good portion of northeast Iowa, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor for Iowa.
Based on precipitation through 7 am Tuesday, April 2nd, all of Floyd County and the vast majority of Chickasaw County remain in D3 or extreme drought. Also still in extreme drought: over three-quarters of Bremer County, the southwest half of Fayette County, the southern half of Mitchell County and southwest third of Howard County, plus eastern two-thirds of Black Hawk, eastern third of Cerro Gordo and northern quarter of Butler counties.
Still in the D2/severe drought category is all of Winneshiek County, almost all of Franklin and Worth counties, southern three-quarters of Butler County, northeast half of Fayette County, north half of Mitchell County, northeast two-thirds of Howard County and western two-thirds of Cerro Gordo County.
Because of the persisting drought, U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has declared 24 Iowa counties as natural disaster areas, making farmers in those counties and those in contiguous counties eligible to apply for emergency assistance. Primary counties include Floyd, Chickasaw, Bremer, Butler, Cerro Gordo, Franklin, Howard, Mitchell, Winneshiek and Worth counties. Contiguous counties include Allamakee, Hancock and Winnebago.
