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April likely to stay wet

An ag meteorologist says April’s cooler and wetter than normal start in the Midwest is bringing relief and delays to many regions.

State climatologist for Michigan Jeff Andresen says expected rain in the coming weeks should knockout dryness across much of the Upper Midwest that carried over from last season.

“That is expected to gradually decrease or dissipate with time,” he says.

He says Michigan has already seen some major reductions.

“In one week we went from 53 percent classified as abnormally dry or worse, and went down to 22 percent,” he explains.

Unfortunately, Andresen says it’s going to be a tough spring for the winter wheat crop in the Plains from Texas up through Kansas and Nebraska.

“Those crops have come out of dormancy, are growing, they are going to need water very, very soon,” he says.  “The outlook right now is not overly optimistic.”

Next week wet weather is likely to continue planting and fieldwork delays across much of the Midwest and Andresen says conditions likely will persist for most of April.

Andresen made his comments during this week’s MSU Extension Field Crops Virtual Breakfast.

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