The following information is a Web Extra from the pages of Farm Journal. It corresponds with the article “Drought Probability?” You can find the article in Farm Journal’s 2013 March issue.
Maps that track rain, snow and other weather events are helpful planning tools. The Climate Corporation, a weather insurance company, has developed a similar map that tracks the depletion and replenishment of soil moisture throughout the season.
This is the first of these maps, which tracks Illinois soil moisture through the 2012 season:
“We created a video visualization of how drought swept across the state of Illinois this past year, starting in April and going through September,” says Jeff Hamlin, Climate Corporation director of agronomic research. “It gives the very granular view of how the soil moisture conditions varied across each 2.5x2.5-mile square of land in the state for each day from April 15 through Sept. 30.”
The model assumes an April 15 planting date with 108-day corn, he adds.
