Current Impacts
To see or report current drought impacts, please visit the Drought Impacts Toolkit, where you can find impacts from media in the Drought Impact Reporter and from citizen scientists and other volunteer observers under Condition Monitoring Observations.
Historic Impacts
No two states have the same experience during a drought. Below are examples of some of the impacts experienced in Iowa in the past. The process for developing this example impact table is described in Noel, M., Bathke, D., Fuchs, B., Gutzmer, D., Haigh, T., Hayes, M., Poděbradská, M., Shield, C., Smith, K. and Svoboda, M., 2020. Linking drought impacts to drought severity at the state level. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(8), pp.E1312-E1321. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0067.1. To view a more complete record, and to filter impacts by drought severity, sector and season, check out the interactive State Impacts Tool.
| Category | Examples of historically observed impacts |
|---|
| D0 | Corn shows drought stress; soil is dry |
| D1 | Grasses are brown; more grass fires occur; burn bans are issued |
| Pond levels decline |
| Soybeans abort pods; corn test weights are struggling |
| D2 | Dryland corn has extremely low yields; commodity shortages are noted; livestock is stressed |
| Fewer mosquitoes are observed |
| Fire danger is high |
| Surface water levels are low; algae blooms increase; voluntary water conservation is requested |
| D3 | Pastures are dry; producers sell cattle; crops are tested for toxins; crops have pest infestation |
| Seasonal allergies are worse; farmers are stressed about high feed prices |
| Trees drop leaves; acorns are underdeveloped |
| Warm water leads to fish kills; streambeds are low to dry |
| D4 | Aquatic invertebrates in waterways increase |
| Extreme measures are taken to conserve water |
| Row crop yields and forage production have significant impacts |