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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

1994

Drought

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Analysis Of An Iowa Aridity Index In Relationship To Climate And Crop Yield, Soumare Harouna, R. E. Carlson Jan 1994

Analysis Of An Iowa Aridity Index In Relationship To Climate And Crop Yield, Soumare Harouna, R. E. Carlson

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

An aridity index and its components, temperature and precipitation, for the period from 1900 through April 1993 were defined and characterized. This index describes the anomalous behavior of both temperature and precipitation over time. Our intent was to examine climate variability in Iowa. Moving mean and standard deviations over various lengths of time were calculated from three time series. We found that these indices fluctuate considerably from year to year and from month to month. The lowest aridity index values occurred in the recent summer of 1992, and the highest occurred during the very drought-prone 1930s. The 12-month moving mean …