During the next few days, extreme heat will persist across the southern Plains, reports USDA’s Joint Ag Weather Facility. Hot weather will also continue in the South and return across much of the Midwest and East. By week’s end, however, markedly cooler air will overspread the northern and central Plains and the upper Midwest.
Early next week, cooler weather will spread from the Midwest into the Northeast. Meanwhile, hot weather will quickly return to the Plains. Showers and thunderstorms will precede and accompany the turn toward cooler weather, with scattered totals in excess of an inch possible from the northern Plains into the Northeast.
Elsewhere, some 1- to 2-inch rainfall totals will be possible in the Southeast and Southwest, but mostly dry conditions will persist on the southern Plains.
The NWS 6-to 10-day outlook for August 6-10 calls for near- to above-normal temperatures nationwide, except for cooler-than-normal conditions along the Pacific Coast. Meanwhile, below-normal rainfall across the northern High Plains, southern half of the Plains, and parts of the Mid-South will contrast with wetter-than-normal weather in much of the East, the Gulf Coast region, and the upper Midwest.
Here’s a breakdown of weather summaries, by region:
In the West, isolated showers embedded in the monsoon circulation stretch from the Desert Southwest to the Intermountain region. Elsewhere, warm, dry weather favors crop development and fieldwork, including Northwestern small grain harvesting.
On the Plains, historically hot conditions persist, especially across southern areas. On Tuesday in Oklahoma, highs soared to 112°F in Hobart and Tulsa. The extreme heat is severely stressing cotton and other immature summer crops. Isolated thundershowers are confined to the northern and central Plains.
In the Corn Belt, unfavorably hot, dry weather is maintaining significant stress on pastures and summer crops across southern and western portions of the region. Relatively cooler weather prevails across the northern and eastern Corn Belt, although soil moisture shortages remain a concern in many areas. On July 29, Missouri led the nation with 98% of its pastures rated in very poor to poor condition, followed by Illinois with 95%.
In the South, rain is mainly confined to the Atlantic coastal plain. However, a few showers dot the drought-ravaged Mid-South, including Arkansas. Elsewhere, hot, dry weather favors rapid crop development.
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