USDA’s Joint Ag Weather Facility says in the Corn Belt, very warm weather persists, but scattered showers continue to provide local relief from short-term dryness. “Overall, prospects remain favorable for Midwestern corn and soybeans, with significant concerns mostly limited to drought in the far upper Midwest (e.g. the Dakotas) and erratic weather, such as spring wetness followed by June heat and dryness, in the lower Midwest,” USDA continues.
In the West, USDA says cool, showery weather from the Pacific Northwest to the northern Rockies contrasts with hot weather from California to the central and southern Rockies. “Today’s high temperatures will approach or reach 110°F in the Desert Southwest,” USDA details.
On the Plains, USDA reports extreme heat is expanding across the southern half of the region, promoting winter wheat maturation and harvesting, boosting irrigation demands, and increasing stress on rain-fed crops. Meanwhile, favorably cooler weather prevails in drought-affected sections of the northern Plains, accompanied by widely scattered showers, according to USDA.
In the South, widely scattered showers dot areas from the Mississippi Delta eastward. “Following the recent eradication of nearly all Southeastern drought, pastures and crops are benefiting from mostly abundant topsoil moisture—although damp conditions are locally limiting hay cutting and other fieldwork,” USDA explains.
In its look for the next five days, USDA says during the next few days, unsettled showery weather will prevail across the eastern one-third of the U.S., with 1- to 3-inch totals likely in the Atlantic Coast states and 1- to 2-inch amounts possible in the Midwest. “In contrast, extreme heat will prevail through Saturday on the southern Plains, while record-setting high temperatures will arrive during the weekend and persist into next week in California and the Southwest,” USDA details. Early next week, hot weather will replace previously cool conditions in the Northwest, while cool air will settle across the Midwest, the department continues.
