As the 2024 growing season starts to wind down in the Midwest, the weather up to this point has been “uneventful,” describes Brad Rippey, USDA meteorologist. Other than drought in Ohio, extensive hail damage in southern Nebraska and some issues in Minnesota, Pro Farmer Crop Tour scouts found minimal evidence of weather-related issues along their route through seven states.
“We have seen a virtual absence of extreme heat in July and August and, for the most part, rainfall has been adequate,” Rippey says. “We haven’t seen any extremes since the late June flooding that struck the Upper Midwest.”
In the final days of August and into September that quiet pattern is expected to continue across the Midwest. Rippey says most of the meaningful rainfall should be associated with the Southwestern monsoon circulation, interacting with a series of weak cold fronts.
“What that means is that most of the rain showers should primarily be across the northwestern Corn Belt and mostly west of the Mississippi River,” he explains. “It should be pretty quiet as you head into the eastern areas.”
In June, July and August, drought covered less than 10% of corn and soybean country. Rippey is not concerned about the continued dryness.
“It’s a little drier as you head to the far eastern fringe of the Corn Belt, mostly across Ohio, but areas further west should have enough topsoil and subsoil moisture to get through these final weeks of the growing season,” he says.
When it comes to temperatures, other than the late June heatwave, it’s been cool with very little stressful heat. Rippey says temperatures will begin to moderate in the final days of August, and we could see temperatures back into the 80s and possibly the low-to-middle 90s into early September. Although warming, temperatures should remain below stressful thresholds for the corn and soybeans still maturing, he adds.
“If you look as far south as Illinois, we have not seen a 95-degree day yet in locations such as Moline and Rockford. That is not unprecedented, but rather unusual,” Rippey says. “To compare, during the summer of 2012, which everybody still remembers, Moline had 15 days of 95-degree heat and Rockford 17 days.”
As harvest nears, at least the weather shouldn’t be a big concern.
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