Weather
Drought concerns increasing on the southern Plains
Across the Corn Belt, light snow is overspreading the far upper Midwest in conjunction with an approaching storm. In contrast, the southern Corn Belt is experiencing a brief period of mild weather.
On the Plains, much cooler air is arriving in the wake of a cold front’s passage, while snow is falling in western Nebraska and environs. Windy weather continues to raise dust across portions of the southern Plains, where worsening drought is adversely affecting rangeland, pastures, and winter wheat. On March 16, more than half of Texas’ winter wheat (52%) and rangeland/pastures (53%) were rated in very poor to poor condition.
In the South, chilly conditions—accompanied by some rain and freezing rain—linger east of the Appalachians, but mild weather is returning farther west. Overnight ice accumulations occurred in parts of North Carolina and Virginia.
In the West, precipitation is largely confined to the Pacific Northwest and the eastern slopes of the northern Rockies. Cooler weather prevails, except for lingering warmth in California, where the average water content of the high-elevation Sierra Nevada snowpack remains at 8 inches, just 28% of the mid-March average.
Forecast High Temperatures (National)
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