Photo: Paul Deaton. August 2023.

According to an article in the Des Moines Register, “At 188 weeks, Iowa’s drought is the longest since the 1950s, state climatologist says.

It has been rather alarming when I’ve been out walking with my dog to see the water levels at some of my favorite places continue to get lower and lower.  So I thought I would share some of my photos here.  I also want to thank contributors Paul Deaton and Jon Green for sharing their photos.

This first video I took of the Iowa river in Iowa City. You can see how you could easily walk out to the center of the river under the bridge.

Here is the same location from a slightly different angle.

Iowa River near Napoleon Park, Iowa City Photo: Trish Nelson

The photo below was taken at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area in Iowa City. You can see the water level is a long distance away from the boat ramp.

Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, Iowa City. Photo credit Trish Nelson

Below is the Cedar River taken from the SFC Chuck Geertz Memorial Bridge located on Highway 22 in Muscatine County. (Before anyone chides me, I was in the passenger seat of the car).  I’ve driven over this bridge previous years when those houses were standing in water.

The below three photos of Lake Macbride were taken by Paul Deaton.

Paul writes: “In August I noticed Lake Macbride was receding from the shore line. The culvert that drained water from the Lake Macbride Watershed was bone dry and remained so until December because of the drought. Every bit of moisture was absorbed into the watershed ground and there was no runoff. The expanse of mudflats where water used to cover them up to the north lake shoreline grew and grew. All of the area you can see in the photographs used to be covered with water. While December rain and snow did begin to replenish ground moisture in the watershed, by the end of the year, the mudflats were only beginning to be covered again with water. ”

Lake McBride/Photo credit Paul Deaton

Lake McBride/Photo credit Paul Deaton

Lake McBride/Photo credit Paul Deaton

The following photographs of the Iowa river were given to us by Jon Green.

Jon took these photos of the Iowa River just above River Junction. The 2022 photo is for reference of what the river usually looks like. He said, “It’s quite low now, too.”

Iowa River/Photo credit Jon Green

Iowa River/Photo credit Jon Green

Iowa River 2022 for comparison/Photo credit Jon Green

If you have a photo of a favorite river, lake or stream you would like to share, send it along to blogforiowa@outlook.com