Farmers see longer growing seasons

Midwestern farm states are experiencing a gradually lengthening growing season, which can have a variety of impacts for agriculture.

Justin Glisan, the Iowa state climatologist, says the trend is showing more time between the last freeze in the spring and the first freeze in the fall.

“What we’ve seen is an expansion of the growing season across the Midwest and Iowa,” he says.

States have weather data going back to the 1800s, but Glisan says looking at the last 30 years can help illustrate the recent trends. He says Iowa is experiencing 1 to 3 days more per decade during its growing season. Overall, Glisan says Iowa is seeing about 8 to 12 days more in its growing season than the historical number. He says the average growing season ranges from 170 to 210 days in Iowa.