Iowa drought is now worst in a decade

Overall dryness in Iowa expanded last week amid unrelenting heat and a lack of rainfall and is now worse than it's been since March 2013, according to a Thursday report by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Drought conditions eclipsed their previous worst of this year, which occurred in late June and early July. Last week averaged about 10 degrees above normal in Iowa, and rainfall was about one-fifth of what is normally expected.

Another dry, hot streak is expected to go for days starting Saturday, with temperatures in some places nearing 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

About 80 percent of the state is in some measure of drought, and about 18 percent is suffering from extreme drought, the second-to-worst classification of four.

Areas of extreme drought more than tripled in size in the past week and mostly occurred in northeast Iowa, where it affects all or parts of about two dozen counties.

This time last year, 40 percent of state was suffering from some measure of drought, and 2 percent was extreme.

Last week's drought report noted Clay, O'Brien and Osceola counties experiencing a mix of "Abnormally Dry" conditions and "Moderate Drought."

Jared Strong is the senior reporter at the Iowa Capital Dispatch. More of his work can be found at http://www.IowaCapitalDispatch.com