Rural Iowa farmers are helping climate scientists get a better understanding of soil moisture levels across the state, data only available at the local level until now.
The Iowa Flood Center has erected “hydrostations” in more than 50 counties to monitor the environment.
Lee Tesdell’s great-grandfather Sievert, who fought in the Civil War, settled the farm Tesdell now manages in Lincoln Township in Polk County. For years, Tesdell has been measuring how much rain falls with plastic gauges. Now, a solar-powered hydrostation — which stands about 8 feet tall — can tell exactly how much rain falls. Tesdell gathers more information, too, which is sent to the statewide flood center in Iowa City.
“They collect rainfall, they collect soil moisture, they collect soil temperature and they collect shallow groundwater well water,” Tesdell outlined.
Soil moisture levels are collected and updated every 15 minutes and the data is shared with other farmers and researchers in real time. Tesdell called it “very Iowa” to see “neighbors helping neighbors,” adding the hydrostations allow scientists to better investigate disasters caused by severe weather.
“That way we can look, for example, at what climate change is doing to us as far as droughts and flooding,” Tesdell explained.
Right now, the central United States does not have a networked moisture monitoring system but the Iowa Flood Center is working to change it.