Monsoon in the Southwest Could Be Cause of Long-term Drought

(Radio Iowa) Monsoon isn’t a term we hear often in Iowa, but that may be what’s at least partly responsible for our prolonged drought conditions. Heavy rain in the southwestern U-S can draw moisture away from the Northern Plains. Meteorologist Doug Kluck, the climate services director for the National Weather Service Central Region, says that pattern has been spinning away for the past several weeks.

Often when we see strong monsoons, there’s a deficit of precipitation in the Southern Plains, sometimes stretching, as in this year, up into Nebraska and even southern South Dakota,” Kluck says. “There tends to be a relationship between a really good monsoon — and this year is an incredible monsoon — and that’s really rain in the southwestern part of the U.S. and and dryness just to the east.” While large portions of Iowa have remained in drought for months, Kluck says long-term weather patterns have been moving more precipitation into the central parts of the country.

“We have seen the Midwest become wetter more and dryness in the South and the West — Southwest, really — being in a long-term drought,” Kluck says. “Some people actually wonder if that is a drought or if that’s normal, and really, we don’t know the answers completely to that.” Kluck says with another La Nina (lah NEEN-yah) possible, there is no guarantee that Southwestern moisture will continue.

“Obviously, we’re all hoping for 200% of normal snowpack in the Southwest for the next five years. That would help a lot, but no one’s predicting that and with La Nina this year, I can talk more about that,” Kluck says. “I can definitely say with another dry year, it’s going to continue to complicate matters in the Southwest in terms of dryness.” Predictions are calling for a third year of La Nina, which could lead to a colder-than-normal winter across the Northern Plains.

(Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton)