DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa's drought conditions are continuing to ease--especially in the Northeast and Southeast corners of the state.
"Over the last couple of weeks there's been some decent rain in those two corners of state, so we saw some improvement along those edges of the drought" says Iowa Department of Natural Resources Hydrology Resources Coordinator Tim Hall.
This week's National Drought Monitor Map shows no drought in almost all of the eastern third of Iowa.
Hall says cooler weather will also help ease Iowa's drought conditions.
"When it's cooler, we get much less evaporation, much less drying of the soil. Whatever moisture's there will last longer" he says.
Hall also says they're keeping an eye on the calendar in hopes of easing drought conditions.
He says any rain that falls on frozen ground this winter will simply run off into nearby creeks and streams--doing nothing for topsoil or subsoil.
This week's National Drought Monitor Map shows just under 70 percent of Iowa with some level of drought--that number was nearly 79 percent last week.
Image from The National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln