Weather

Cooler air on the move

On the Plains, cooler weather prevails, except for lingering heat in parts of Texas and southern Oklahoma. Across the central Plains, scattered showers accompany the surge of cooler air. Producers have been slow to start planting winter wheat due to drought. In Nebraska and South Dakota, the 5-year average pace for wheat planting by September 2 is 6%; this year, planting stood at 1% in Nebraska and 2% in South Dakota.

Across the Corn Belt, cooler air is spreading across northern and western areas, but hot weather persists in the Ohio Valley. Showers and thunderstorms are developing across the western Corn Belt in the vicinity of a cold front.

In the South, hot weather is promoting summer crop maturation and fieldwork. Scattered showers are generally confined to areas along the southern Atlantic Coast.

In the West, hot, mostly dry weather favors fieldwork, including early-season winter wheat planting across the interior Northwest. Isolated showers dot the Southwest, while cool conditions are confined to the eastern slopes of the central Rockies and areas along the immediate Pacific Coast.