USDA’s Joint Ag Weather Facility in the Corn Belt, warm weather across the upper Midwest is helping to push developmentally delayed corn and soybeans toward maturity. “Foggy weather lingers early today, however, in the central and eastern Corn Belt,” USDA reports.
In the West, hot, mostly dry weather continues. “An elevated risk of wildfires exists across parts of the Northwest, which is already contending with a rash of fires,” USDA explains. The greatest concentration of active fires exists across western sections of Oregon and Montana, USDA elaborates.
On the Plains, USDA says dry weather favors fieldwork and summer crop maturation. However, near- to slightly below-normal temperatures on the southern Plains contrast with a late-season heat wave on the northern High Plains, it adds.
In the South, Harvey made its final landfall early today near Cameron, Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph, USDA reports. “Significant flooding developed overnight along and near the Texas-Louisiana border, where torrential rain continues,” USDA explains. Meanwhile, locally heavy showers are spreading inland as far east as southern Alabama and western Florida. Weather conditions are improving, however, along the Mid-Atlantic coast, it continues.
Looking ahead over the next five days, USDA says rain has ended in the Houston metropolitan area, but flooding will persist for days or weeks as excess water slowly drains toward the Gulf of Mexico while pressuring and potentially overtopping dams and levees. “In addition, some computer guidance suggests that heavy rain could return to southeastern Texas early next week, potentially complicating flood-recovery efforts,” USDA details. The remnants of Harvey will gradually accelerate northeastward, reaching the central Appalachians by Saturday, according to USDA. Although the flood threat will diminish as the storm accelerates, it says parts of the mid-South and Tennessee and Ohio Valleys could receive 2 to 6 inches of rain. “Elsewhere, hot, mostly dry weather will persist across the northern High Plains and much of the West, while generally cool weather will continue across the South, East, and lower Midwest,” USDA continues. During the weekend, late-season warmth will expand eastward across the north-central U.S., aiding immature corn and soybeans in the upper Midwest, USDA reports.
