USDA’s Joint Ag Weather Facility says on the Plains, cooler weather prevails, except for lingering heat in parts of Texas and southern Oklahoma. “Across the central Plains, scattered showers accompany the surge of cooler air,” USDA reports. Producers have been slow to start planting winter wheat due to drought, USDA explains. “In Nebraska and South Dakota, the five-year average pace for wheat planting by Sept. 2 is 6%; this year, planting stood at 1% in Nebraska and 2% in South Dakota,” USDA elaborates.
In the West, hot, mostly dry weather favors fieldwork, including early-season winter wheat planting across the interior Northwest, USDA reports. “Isolated showers dot the Southwest, while cool conditions are confined to the eastern slopes of the central Rockies and areas along the immediate Pacific Coast,” USDA adds.
In the Corn Belt, USDA says cooler air is spreading across northern and western areas, but hot weather persists in the Ohio Valley. “Showers and thunderstorms are developing across the western Corn Belt in the vicinity of a cold front,” USDA explains.
In the South, USDA says hot weather is promoting summer crop maturation and fieldwork. “Scattered showers are generally confined to areas along the southern Atlantic Coast,” USDA reports.
USDA’s outlook says a cold front draped across the southern Plains and the Midwest will continue to drive southeastward, reaching the Atlantic Seaboard during the weekend. “Widespread showers will precede and accompany the front, with some of the most significant rainfall -- generally an inch or more -- expected from the Mid-South into the Ohio Valley and in northern sections of Florida,” USDA reports. A period of cool, dry weather will trail the front in most areas east of the Rockies, although late-season heat will quickly return to the Plains and Midwest by early next week, according to USDA. Elsewhere, monsoon-related showers will continue in the Southwest, while a late-season heat wave will end early next week in the Northwest, USDA adds.
