Though the region now has a fresh blanket of snow, there’s no change in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor for Iowa in north central and northeast Iowa.
Because the latest report out Thursday (02.13) is based on precipitation through 7 am Tuesday, February 11th, prior to snow late Tuesday night into Wednesday, all of north central and northeast Iowa remain rated in the D1 category for moderate drought. That area includes all of Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Cerro Gordo, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin, Grundy, Hancock, Hardin, Kossuth, Mitchell, Winnebago and Worth counties.
The snows this week did enable several area counties to lift bans on open burning that had been in place for almost two weeks, including Floyd, Franklin, Winneshiek, Grundy, Hardin and Clayton counties.
Burn bans were also deactivated in Howard and Bremer counties, both at noon Friday (02.14).
