Weather
Near ideal weather pattern across most of the Corn Belt
Across the Corn Belt, scattered showers and thunderstorms accompany a push of slightly cooler air. Hot weather lingers, however, across the southern Corn Belt. Overall growing conditions remain mostly favorable for Midwestern corn and soybeans. From New Boston, Illinois, downstream to Burlington, Iowa, the Mississippi River recently crested at its third-highest level on record, behind 1993 and 2008.
On the Plains, widely scattered showers and thunderstorms from Kansas northward are causing minor delays in winter wheat harvesting and other fieldwork. Topsoil moisture remains mostly favorable for pastures, rangeland, and summer crops, although hot, dry weather has recently returned to the southern High Plains.
In the South, hot, humid, mostly dry weather favors fieldwork and a rapid pace of summer crop development. Scattered showers are mostly confined to Florida’s peninsula.
In the West, monsoon showers are providing limited drought relief, mainly in Arizona and the southern Great Basin. In contrast, hot, dry weather is maintaining heavy irrigation demands and stressing rangeland, pastures, and rain-fed crops in California and the Northwest.
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