USDA’s Joint Ag Weather Facility in the Corn Belt, widespread weekend frost resulted in only minor impacts on rapidly maturing crops. “Currently, cool weather and scattered showers linger across easternmost areas, including Ohio,” USDA says. Elsewhere in the Midwest, USDA reports mild, dry weather is ideal for corn and soybean maturation and harvesting.
In the West, USDA says wet weather is overspreading northwestern California and western portions of Washington and Oregon. “Cooler weather accompanies the precipitation along the Pacific Coast, but warm, dry weather across the remainder of the region favors winter wheat planting and summer crop harvesting, USDA reports.
On the Plains, dry weather accompanies record-setting warmth, USDA reports. “Today’s high temperatures will again approach 90°F as far north as Montana,” USDA adds. The warm, dry weather is promoting a rapid fieldwork pace, USDA reports, although many producers on the southern Plains continue to await moisture before planting winter wheat.
“In the South, cool but dry weather continues to promote autumn fieldwork, including harvest activities for crops such as cotton, peanuts, rice, and soybeans,” USDA explains.
USDA’s outlook is for a pesky storm centered over the Mid-Atlantic region will drift northeastward, reaching the Canadian Maritimes by mid-week. “In the storm’s wake, mild, dry weather will cover the majority of the U.S.” USDA says. West of the Rockies, however, an important weather pattern change will result in much cooler weather and an increase in shower activity, USDA says. “Five-day precipitation totals could reach 1 to 3 inches in orographically favored areas, including the Sierra Nevada,” USDA adds. Toward week’s end USDA says showers and thunderstorms may erupt on the Plains. “Any rain that falls on the parched southern Plains will benefit drought-ravaged rangeland and newly planted winter wheat,” USDA says.
