USDA's Joint Ag Weather Facility says on the Plains, beneficial rain showers dot northern and central areas. "Markedly cooler air is overspreading Montana, but hot weather persists across the remainder of the nation's mid-section," USDA explains. Today's high temperatures will approach 95°F as far north as the central High Plains, it adds.

In the West, USDA says cooler weather prevails. "Warmth lingers, however, in the Four Corners States, while wildfire development and expansion remains a threat," USDA reports, continuing, "Showers are confined to the northern Intermountain West."

In the Corn Belt, USDA says showers and thunderstorms are confined to the upper Great Lakes region. "Across the heart of the Midwest, warm, dry weather favors soybean and final corn planting efforts, as well as rapid development of summer crops and soft red winter wheat," USDA explains.

In the South, USDA says showers continue to provide drought relief in the Carolinas. "Elsewhere, dry weather is promoting fieldwork, including winter wheat harvesting and cotton, peanut, and soybean planting," USDA explains.

USDA's outlook says following this morning’s frost from northern Pennsylvania into western New England, much warmer air will overspread the Northeast during the weekend. "Farther west, cooler air will briefly arrive across the nation’s mid-section, while above-normal temperatures will return to the West," USDA reports. Early next week, USDA says a new surge of cool air will spread across the Northwest. "Meanwhile, late-week and weekend showers will provide beneficial moisture across the northern Plains and upper Midwest, with 1- to 2-inch rainfall totals possible in the latter region," according to USDA. Rain will also affect portions of the middle and southern Atlantic states, but USDA reports mostly dry weather will prevail well into next week from California into the south-central U.S.

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