The colder-than-normal winter weather pattern continued into early spring in Iowa with statewide temperatures for March averaging 6.6 degrees below normal. March was also considerably drier than normal in most of Iowa with statewide precipitation averaging only 39 percent of normal, ranking as the 11th driest in 142 years. The southwestern crop district of the state was the driest, receiving only around 12 percent of the normal precipitation.

Wetter weather returned to much of Iowa during April, but amounts...