Bad News In Western Iowa

Des Moines Register:

Severe drought now grips parts of western Iowa left awash last summer by historic Missouri River flooding, a potential disaster in the making that could test municipal water supplies, threaten crops and leave kayakers high and dry.
“We are beginning to see very low river levels,” said state geologist Robert Libra. “We have reports of a few private wells going dry, and some public and rural water systems are looking at options in case dry conditions persist.”
Hardest hit by a months-long dry spell that began late last summer and continued into the winter is a 12-county area northwest of Pocahontas, which has received just 2 inches of rain and snow since Dec. 1, about half the normal precipitation.
And those conditions are likely to hold or even worsen through at least April, according to National Weather Service forecasts.
Signs of trouble are already appearing:
Soil moisture is below normal across more than half the state. Agronomists give only 1-in-20 odds that there will be enough rain to support normal crop planting in the spring.

Another headline on the website mentions the 1988 drought.  Anytime 1988 gets mentioned, things are really bad.  We're definitely extremely wet here in western Ohio, but we were wet last spring and things still dried out a lot in July and August.  Grain markets may be in for a wild ride if the drought conditions remain out there for a while.