Weather
Soil moisture levels varies across the Corn Belt
Across the Corn Belt, late-season snow is blanketing portions of Wisconsin and Michigan. Meanwhile, rain is falling across parts of the eastern Corn Belt. Soils across the upper Midwest are much drier than those in neighboring regions to the southeast, including the Ohio Valley.
On the Plains, cold weather from Kansas and Colorado northward contrasts with lingering warmth in Oklahoma and Texas. Patches of rain, or rain mixed with snow, are developing on the central Plains. Due to drought- and winterkill-related issues, roughly one-sixth of the winter wheat was rated in very poor to poor condition on March 22 in Kansas (17%) and Oklahoma (15%).
In the South, warm, dry weather favors an acceleration of fieldwork in many areas, although soils remain very wet in some areas from southern and eastern Texas to the Mississippi Delta.
In the West, locally heavy precipitation is falling in the Pacific Northwest, while snow showers dot the central Rockies. Elsewhere, warm, dry weather favors rapid crop development in California and the Desert Southwest. The water content of the Sierra Nevada snowpack is less than 10% of the late-March average.
Forecast High Temperatures (National)
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