Iowa state climatologist says growing season likely to start on the dry side

It appears most of Iowa will head into spring on the dry side.

State climatologist Justin Glisan tells Brownfield subsoil moisture is generally at or below 30 percent of full capacity coming out of what’s setting up to be the 15th driest winter on record.

“But we don’t get infiltration given that the soils are frozen, so looking at the fall we did have the eighth-wettest October on record. So we were able to refill some of the subsoil moisture profile, but we’re definitely going into the growing season drier than average.”

He suggests most farmers won’t complain if it’s dry during planting.

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