In an ideal winter, park visitors strap on snowshoes and explore the trails at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center in Sioux City. This year, however, the nature center has faced a different reality.
"It's been a roller coaster," said Theresa Kruid, education director at the county park. "I think it's been warm and then cold. It was kind of weird, with lots of snow in December and not very much since then."
Without enough snow, Kruid couldn't schedule community programs or school outings — a trend that has become increasingly common in recent years. She said it's "hit or miss" whether the park is able to offer programs like snowshoeing.
"We have to have 4 inches of snow on the ground, otherwise they're not very usable. What's the point in using snowshoes if you don't have at least that base," Kruid said.
No snow in 2026
The pattern Kruid described reflects broader conditions across the region.
A series of weekend storms brought snow to Iowa after Thanksgiving, but since the meteorological start of winter on Dec. 1, 2025, very little has fallen.
The state climatologist now categorizes the upper Midwest's current conditions as a "snow drought."
Meteorologist Alexis Jimenez with the National Weather Service in Des Moines confirmed that most of Iowa experienced below-normal snowfall during this period.
“It's definitely felt a little more dry here as we've gotten into 2026," Jimenez said. "But memory takes me back to that bigger snowstorm we had right around and right after Thanksgiving, when much of the state saw 6 inches-plus in some places. Even central eastern Iowa got over a foot that day. That’s where a lot of our snowfall for this season was."
Iowa’s largest metro areas recorded below-normal snowfall from December through early February, with deficits ranging from 6 inches in Dubuque to almost 10 inches in Waterloo.
Des Moines saw the largest deficit at 8.8 inches below its normal 18.5 inches.
The full season shows a mixed picture across Iowa, with parts of eastern Iowa above normal. However, western and central Iowa cities, including Sioux City, Des Moines and the Quad Cities, still trail their seasonal averages.
Increased ecosystem concerns
For Kruid, Iowa's dry start to the new year raises some worry about the local ecosystem in Woodbury County.
A lack of snowpack can hurt animals and insects that depend on that protective layer to survive winter's harsh conditions.
"You also lose your cover from snow, so that you can run through your tunnels and that kind of thing to stay away from predators," Kruid said. "I think that it is kind of interesting watching the wildlife — I think there are definitely pros and cons."
Kruid noted that while foraging for food becomes easier for some creatures, hibernating animals face a different danger — fluctuating weather may disturb their rest, causing them to burn through their fat reserves too quickly.
"They could wake up early, and there's no food source for them," Kruid added.
Plants face their own vulnerabilities. Without snow cover, they may sprout prematurely, only to be damaged by lingering cold temperatures.
"Then it's still cold, so they can't survive, so then they have to expend that much more energy to try and regrow," Kruid explained.
The weather outlook
Despite current conditions, Jimenez offered some perspective on what could lie ahead.
While she said December and January are typically the driest months of the year, she expects conditions to shift as the season progresses toward spring.
In the coming weeks, more moisture is anticipated across the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes Region, with some potentially reaching eastern Iowa. The rest of the state could see average levels.
As for frozen ground — a typical concern during a dry winter — Jimenez isn't worried just yet.
"The main thing is there isn't snow insulating the ground," Jimenez said. "But we have forecasted temperatures in the 50s and 60s in the next few days, so that should start to erode the frozen ground a bit."
More importantly, Jimenez pointed to Iowa entering winter in relatively good shape thanks to a wet July and August that kept the state out of long-term drought.
"So the impact from a dry winter is less this time, and we have plenty of time this year as we get into March and April, where things start warming up, and we get more rain, we can definitely see the soil moisture increase back to where it should be for the year," Jimenez said.
The latest Water Summary Update from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources supports this cautiously optimistic outlook.
Despite below-average precipitation in January, all regions of Iowa previously under drought watch have had those designations lifted.
The driest conditions were concentrated in the northwest corner of Iowa, where about 30% of normal precipitation fell.
