By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Authorities say a 6th grader was killed and five other people were wounded during a shooting this morning in Perry High School and the 17-year-old suspect, who was a student at the school, died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Four students and a school administrator are hospitalized.

One of them is in critical condition, but is expected to survive. During a news conference this afternoon, Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn was emotional as he praised teachers, staff and students for “acting bravely and heroically” today.

“All of our condolences to the victims and their families,” Vaughn said, pausing before continuing to read from his statement. “They need your thoughts and prayers as well as time and space to process and to grieve.”

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said the suspect has been identified as Dylan Butler and he was armed with two weapons — a pump action shotgun and small caliber handgun. “Officers located, during the search of the school, an improvised explosive device,” Mortvedt said. “The State Fire Marshal and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rendered the device safe.”

Mortvedt told reporters “all evidence at this time” suggests the 17-year-old acted alone. “Butler also made a number of social media posts in and around the time of the shooting,” Mortvedt said. “Law enforcement is working to secure those pieces of evidence.”

Mortvedt said he had not seen a TikTok video allegedly recorded this morning by Brooks that has been reposted on social media platforms. A reporter at the news conference asked Mortvedt if investigators have determined a motive for the shooting. “Anything into the background of him is part of the investigation and, obviously, we’re going to take a deep dive into that,” Mortvedt said, “but there’s nothing that we can release at this time.”

Governor Kim Reynolds opened this afternoon’s news conference with a message to the Perry community.

“This strikes at the heart of everything that we hold dear. This senseless tragedy has shaken our entire state to the core and I want this community to know that every Iowan stands with you,” Reynolds said. “It’s impossible to understand why anything like this happens, but I want you to know we will work tirelessly to get the answers so that we can prevent it from happening again.”

Reynolds has ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half-staff until sunset on Sunday in support of the students, families, teachers and staff of Perry schools and the Perry community.

Other Iowa elected officials have been posting statements on social media. Senator Chuck Grassley said the appalling violence at Perry High School is heartbreaking. Senator Ernst said she’s praying for the safety and recovery of those involved.

State Representative Carter Nordman, a Republican from Adel who represents Perry in the Iowa legislature, said he’s devastated by the news and thankful for the first responders who are handling the situation. Congressman Zach Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant who represents Perry in the U-S House, said he is “beyond angry” and “we have a duty to protect our children, families and educators.”

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was in Perry for an event right before this morning’s shooting. Ramaswamy posted on social media that someone at the event remarked that it was just a matter of time before something like this happened in Iowa — and Ramaswamy said “there’s a psychological sickness at the core of our country right now.”

The top two Democrats in the Iowa legislature spoke at a statehouse forum just after the first reports of the shooting where made. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said it was too soon to talk about any policy response to what happened in Perry.

“I’d rather keep the students and the faculty and the families as the focus right now on the Perry incident until we know what happened,” Konfrst said.

The Iowa State Education Association’s president and vice president issued a joint statement, saying “words cannot express the sorrow” they feel for the victims and the pain that everyone in Perry feels.

By Matt Kelley (Radio Iowa)

The final tallies are in, and state climatologist Justin Glisan says 2023 is going down as one of Iowa’s warmest and driest years in more than 150 years of record keeping.

Glisan says when you average out the temperatures over 365 days, it’s rare for Iowa’s year-long average temperature to vary by even one-degree above or below the previous year, but that changed during 2023.

“We were over two degrees above average,” Glisan says, “so that was looking at the rankings that we have, it’ll be in the top 20 warmest years on record, again going back to 1872.”

As 2023 concluded, he says it ended 182 consecutive weeks of at least D-1 moderate drought in some part of the state. That’s more than three-and-a-half years of continuous drought and some sections of the state have very dry conditions.

“We have widespread drought, a large D-3, which is on that scale of D-0 to D-4 for extreme drought, a large swath in eastern Iowa,” Glisan says. “Precipitation deficits within that D-3 region, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches below average just for the year.”

The only corner of the state that recorded above-average precipitation during 2023 was northwest Iowa, which saw between one and three inches more than the norm. However, he says the rest of the state was exceptionally dry.

“Overall, if you look at the statewide average, about 27 inches, with the average just a little over 35-and-a-half inches,” Glisan says, “so about nine inches below average, and looking at the rankings, it’ll be in the top 25 driest years on record.”

After three consecutive La Nina winters, we’re now in an El Nino pattern, which Glisan says tends to bring the Midwest warmer temperatures in addition to wetter conditions.

Glisan says Iowa had a bit of a snow drought last month.

“Climatologically December is the snowiest month for Iowa,” Glisan says. “The preliminary statewide average is 1.4 inches. That’s 6.5 inches below average.” Despite the lack of snow, December was one of four months out of 2023 that wound up with ABOVE average precipitation.

“A majority of our precipitation was rainfall and that rainfall was gradual over several days and it was able to soak in,” Glisan says. That’s because December temperatures were above average, keeping the ground from freezing solid.

Glisan says there is a storm system in the Pacific Ocean that’s headed east and the long-term forecast indicates it may bring rain and snow to Iowa as early as this weekend. Glisan cautions, though, that the storm system could weaken as it makes landfall on the west coast and moves across the Rockies.

DES MOINES – The current drought is the longest in Iowa since the 1950s, with abnormally dry and drought conditions extending into the 188th week in a row, according to the latest data available.

Following the 16th driest November on record, precipitation for December is currently about 60 percent of average, which is normally 1.37 inches. Portions of southeast Iowa recorded above normal rainfall for the month, leaving most of the state with below average precipitation.

Depending on potential rainfall during the coming weekend, December could finish with average levels This would help stabilize, but not improve, drought conditions.

“At this point, any moisture we get in the state will be helpful,” says Tim Hall, the Hydrology Resources Coordinator for the Iowa DNR. “With conditions as dry as they are coming out of 2023 there is a real concern for hydrologic conditions moving into 2024. Low stream flows and dry soil conditions could lead to water supply challenges in the coming year.”

However, the dry winter months will make drought recovery challenging. January is normally the driest month of the year in the state, with an average of less than one inch of moisture.

“Strong El Niño conditions are projected to persist through winter,” said Iowa State Climatologist, Dr. Justin Glisan. “In an El Niño winter, precipitation can be highly variable. Warmer than normal temperatures could result in more rain than snow during the winter months.”

The Iowa Drought Team, made up of staff from the Departments of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and Natural Resources will continue to meet over the winter months to prepare for potential continuation and worsening of drought conditions. The next Water Summary Update, which will include a review of the 2023 conditions, will be published in January.