NEAR WHITING, Iowa (KTIV) -
When the skies opened up for a brief period Wednesday, it was a welcome sight for many Siouxlanders.
"They were slow movers at first, but then they really picked up speed, once they got going. So, unfortunately the people that did see the rains only saw them for a brief period of time," said Riley O'Connor, KTIV meteorologist.
It looked impressive, and storm watches and warnings broke in coverage throughout the early evening. But not everyone benefited from the rain. Some spots missed out entirely on precipitation.
"It's been that way the entire summer," said Mike Tiedeman, an agronomist for the Farmer's Cooperative Society in Ireton, Iowa. "The rain's just been tremendously spotty."
"You know, unfortunately the north side of Sioux City didn't really get anything, we only got a few sprinkles, while down at the airport they got about fifteen hundredths of an inch," said O'Connor.
It may be too little, too late. Tiedeman says the rain would have been more beneficial, a month or even two weeks ago.
"The healthier your plant, the better chances that it'll be able to fend off any disease," said Tiedeman.
The rain wasn't the only thing that affected the crops. The winds also pushed many of them back at an angle, where they've stayed.
There were some places, like crops near Sloan, that couldn't absorb all of the rain water into the soil because it came down so quickly. Plus, the crops were already dying.
"We had these storms that erupted, became severe, dropped heavy amounts of rain, so unfortunately the ground couldn't soak it in fast enough," said O'Connor.
According to the National Weather Service, 80 percent of the country is currently experiencing less rain than normal. Here in Siouxland, both Nebraska and Iowa are already in statewide severe or extreme droughts. Some parts of South Dakota are doing slightly better, but O'Connor say that's probably temporary.
"Unfortunately we expect this to continue to deteriorate because we'll see this pattern we're in expects to stay dry for the next several months," said O'Connor.
