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Upper Midwest summer-like weather won’t last

An atmospheric scientist warns the recent summer-like weather won’t last. 

Eric Snodgrass with Nutrien Ag Solutions tells Brownfield the uncommonly high temperatures in the plains and upper Midwest have caused some river flooding because of snowmelt. “In the last two weeks, we saw such tremendous snowmelt if you talk about parts of northern Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. It shrunk down to probably about 20% of what it was but I think we’re going to put that on hold for a little while because unfortunately, the pattern will turn back over cooler.”

Snodgrass says many farmers in his home state of Illinois have been aggressively getting fieldwork done, and that concerns him. “A lot of folks are starting to get those planters up and rolling, so now it’s one of those things where we’re like, alright, is the atmosphere going to turn itself back over and give us a risk on this newly-planted crop?”

Snodgrass says he does not see any reason to believe 2023 will have weather leading to massive crop disasters, but says there is a risk for planting this week because of the possibility of cold and snow next week. From the Wisconsin Bankers Association Ag Banking Conference in Wisconsin Dells,