Ag Weather Forecast: The Heat is Coming

The heat is on, at least for some parts of the Corn Belt. This shift to significantly hotter temperatures is a dramatic swing from just last week, according to Michael Clark and Kirk Hinz, meteorologists with BAMWX.com.

“From the Northern Plains to the Upper Midwest to the Great Lakes, we saw record low temperatures, and it made all the way south to Iowa.” Hinz says. “Some even dropped down to the 20s and lower 30s, when we were only one day shy of June.”

Listen to Hinz and Clark discuss ag weather with AgriTalk Host Chip Flory:

But that pattern has changed. Many farmers in the Midwest and surrounding areas will see much drier and warmer weather, Clark says.

“Precipitation over the next two weeks is going to be pretty marginal at best,” he says. “We’ve got some data going showing upper 90s to 100-degree temperatures in the Northern Plains by the weekend. It will be incredibly hot with low humidity values, which will exacerbate things significantly.”

Hinz says it’s interesting just how quickly weather conditions flipped from being wet and cold last week to the dry and very hot forecast ahead. He and Clark are concerned what that means for crop conditions.

What areas could be hit the hardest? They say it is “code red” for crops in Michigan to Minnesota to the Dakotas.

Clark says farmers in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio will likely see a few more 90-degree days than normal for this time of year. From a precipitation standpoint, he says, the area that stands the best chance for rainfall in June is the far southern-third of the Corn Belt (southern Illinois, southern Indiana and southern Ohio).

Overall, the meteorologists say the next 10 to 16 days will feature:

• Very hot temperatures
• High humidity
• Thunderstorm clusters

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