Weather

Late-season heat on parts of the Plains

On the Plains, late-season heat has returned, following a brief spell of cooler weather. Monday’s high temperatures will approach 100° as far north as South Dakota. Hot weather and significant soil moisture shortages are making some producers reluctant to move ahead with winter wheat planting preparations.

Across the Corn Belt, cool, dry weather prevails in the wake of recent rainfall. Drought-easing rainfall was heaviest across central and southern Indiana, where late-week and weekend precipitation totaled 4 inches or more in many locations. Meanwhile, breezy conditions are developing across the upper Midwest, signaling the imminent return of warm weather.

In the South, mild, dry weather prevails, except for isolated showers across Florida’s peninsula. Dry weather is promoting an acceleration of fieldwork—including summer crop harvesting—in the Southeast, following recent heavy rainfall.

In the West, a late-season surge of monsoon moisture is resulting in an increase in showers in the Desert Southwest. Elsewhere, mostly dry weather favors fieldwork, although cooler air is overspreading the Pacific Northwest.