News

Wet 2019, anomaly or just the beginning?

The National Climate Report from NOAA says Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin received more rain in 2019 than ever recorded.  Nationally, it was the second wettest year with many other states experiencing near-record precipitation.

“It would be hard to replicate statistically some of the extremes we saw in 2019.”

Michigan climatologist Jeff Andresen, who contributed to the report, tells Brownfield the number of days with precipitation and the amounts are increasing.

“Much of the Midwest, and really the Northeast, have seen the same or similar trends in precipitation with just more events and heavier precipitation—and that’s been especially true over the last 30-40 years.”     

Andresen says increasingly wet springs are also limiting farmers’ ability to get into fields and with high soil moisture levels now, the coming spring doesn’t look too promising in his region.

“The outlook calls for above-normal precip all the way into the spring and even into the early part of the growing season.”

He says one bright spot will be the expected warmer than normal temperatures to start the year which hopefully will help dry up soils for the planting season.

NOAA says 2019 recorded 14 separate billion-dollar weather disasters, the fifth straight year with at least 10.