USDA says in the Corn Belt, frost and freeze warnings are in effect early today across much of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, as well as northern and eastern Indiana. “More than a week ago, on April 30, corn emergence had reached 10% in Indiana and 5% in Ohio, but had not yet begun in Michigan or Wisconsin,” the department details. Meanwhile, mild air is overspreading the western Corn Belt, accompanied by a few showers and thunderstorms, it adds.
In the West, USDA says widely scattered showers are mostly confined to the Intermountain region. “In the Northwest, mild, dry weather is promoting fieldwork, including spring wheat planting, although many rivers are running high due to melting snow. Meanwhile, unusually cool conditions cover the Desert Southwest,” USDA elaborates.
On the Plains, disorganized rain showers are affecting the northern half of the region, especially the Dakotas. Across the northern High Plains, windy weather trails the showers, USDA reports. Meanwhile, mild, dry weather favors fieldwork across the southern half of the Plains, it continues.
In the South, USDA report sunny, dry weather is promoting fieldwork and crop development. “Lowland flooding continues in parts of the mid-South, as water drains from creeks and tributaries into larger rivers,” USDA explains.
In its outlook, USDA says a developing storm system emerging from the Southwest will provide the focus for most of the week’s significant precipitation. “Five-day totals could reach 1 to 3 inches from the central and southern Rockies eastward into the southern Mid-Atlantic States,” according to USDA. In contrast, it explains only light precipitation will occur across the nation’s northern tier, except for some late-week showers in the Northwest. “Many areas of the Deep South, including Florida’s peninsula, will also remain mostly dry,” USDA continues. Elsewhere, cool conditions will persist during the next several days from the Great Lakes States into the Northeast, as well as the Desert Southwest.
