The summer season of 2013 started out with June monthly temper­atures and rainfall averaging close to normal for the state of Iowa as a whole. A closer look at June rainfall, however, shows that amounts varied widely across the state with some significant areas of below-normal rainfall in the western into southern two-thirds of Iowa.

July brought some hot days to Iowa, but into late July, monthly temperatures were averaging near to only a few degrees above normal in most areas, and some cooler days occurred during the latter part of the month when temperatures were below normal. Soils that were nearly saturated early in the summer dried quickly...