DES MOINES, Iowa -- Dry conditions are expanding in Iowa.
"There was a significant expansion in at least the D-0 dryness category over the last week," says Iowa Department of Natural Resources Hydrology Resources Coordinator Tim Hall.
This week's National Drought Monitor shows three-quarters of Iowa in some level of drought or near-drought.
This week's map shows Southeast and Southwest Iowa are the only parts of the state with no drought.
Hall says after 10 months of drought across much of the state, this week's increase wasn't much of a surprise.
"When we're on the edge of going into drought or coming out of drought, we're sort of teetering on that are-we-in or are-we-out point--it can go back-and-forth pretty quickly," he says.
Hall says the lack of rain in early in the crop growing season is starting to be a concern.
"You know, if we could write the script for the spring planting season it would kind of be what we're seeing now--so long as we got expected rainfall after that seed is in the ground," he says.
Hall says he's a little nervous about drought conditions after another week with little to no rain over much of the state.
He says he'd like to see that normal inch of rain a week, plus a little extra to make up for what hasn't come in the last couple of weeks.
Images from The National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln