USDA’s Joint Ag Weather Facility says in the Corn Belt, mild, mostly dry weather prevails in advance of a strong cold front. “Recent rains have been especially impressive in the eastern Corn Belt, where pastures and some soybeans have benefited from topsoil moisture improvements,” USDA reports.
In the West, USDA says hot, dry weather prevails, except for persistently cool conditions along the Pacific Coast and a surge of cool air into the eastern slopes of the northern Rockies. “Harvesting of Northwestern small grains is quickly advancing, but wildfires continue in the Great Basin and northern Intermountain West,” USDA elaborates.
On the Plains, scattered showers accompany sharply cooler, breezy conditions across Montana and the Dakotas, USDA reports. “Today’s high temperatures will remain below 60°F in parts of Montana,” USDA adds. Meanwhile, beneficial showers dot the southern Plains, although much more rain is needed to stabilize the condition of rangeland, pastures, and immature summer crops, according to USDA.
In the South, USDA says a few showers and thunderstorms linger, mainly in the southern Atlantic region. “In the Gulf and Atlantic Coast states, July and August rainfall has revived pastures and aided immature summer crops,” USDA explains.
In its outlook, USDA says an autumn-like cold front currently crossing the northern Plains will race eastward, reaching the Atlantic Coast late in the week. “Rainfall associated with the front’s passage could reach 1 to 3 inches, with locally higher amounts, in the Northeast and from the southern Plains into the Southeast,” USDA elaborates. Only scattered, generally light showers can be expected, however, across the northern and central Plains and much of the Midwest, followed by an extended period of cool weather in the cold front’s wake, according to USDA. “Elsewhere, hot, dry weather will continue west of the Rockies, except for a few showers in the Southwest,” USDA adds.
