Ag Weather Forum

Heat is starting to build across the Plains and will be spreading through much of the country over the next several days. The heat will lose its intensity for northern and eastern areas with time, but not before bringing stressful conditions to many areas.

Heavy rains over much of the Corn Belt during the last several weeks have eased drought across a lot of the region. But even in areas of heavy rainfall, drought still exists on the map. Why is drought showing up even though heavy rain has turned around all sorts of drought...

A pace of corn dent that is one week ahead of average may be a sign of stress in the Iowa corn crop.

After a nice stretch of mild and rather wet weather across a lot of the U.S. Corn Belt, there are model indications that a hot ridge could form up across the middle of the country for the end of August and beginning of September.

If not for an extremely dry period from mid-May to mid-June, the variable rainfall pattern and overall mild temperatures this summer would have set up most of the Corn Belt with high potential.

Vegetation health analysis reinforces ideas of needed moisture as late summer approaches

Stress from even a short period of hot days and very warm nights can reduce corn yields.

Hot weather that engulfed the U.S. this week will get some relief across the north. Southern and western areas will see the heat continue next week.

Neutral Pacific Ocean SOI readings point to jet stream tracks which hint at La Nina more than El Nino, unfavorable for U.S. row crops.

A heat dome will spread above-normal temperatures into much of the U.S. next week. Heat stress will be coming at an inopportune time for pollinating and filling corn as well as filling soybeans. There is some potential for rainfall across some areas, but an overall hotter and drier...

Snowmelt water has allowed Colorado River reservoirs to fill well above the very low levels of 2022.

It's a popular topic when drought becomes entrenched, but it's not always an easy answer.

Frontal boundaries will spark scattered showers and thunderstorms across the Corn Belt through the second half of this week. These rain showers and thunderstorms could bring much-needed rainfall to corn and soybeans standing in soil that is short on moisture.

Heavy rainfall for parts of the Corn Belt improved soil moisture in some areas, but those that missed the rain saw their soil moisture decline. Even so, little moisture storage below the topsoil layer is tempering the rainfall forecasts as crops approach reproductive stages.

The U.S. is now on a three-year run of damaging June upper-air heat domes thanks to the Texas dome of 2023.

A derecho brought widespread wind damage and hurricane-force winds to Illinois and surrounding areas along the Iowa-Missouri border and into southern Indiana on June 29.

Though heavy rain will be welcomed in the southern Corn Belt through this weekend, it comes with the risk of significant severe weather the next few days, including potential derechos, damaging winds, large hail, and perhaps a few tornadoes as well.

Models are coming to an agreement that the southern end of the Corn Belt is due for some heavier rainfall over the next two weeks. But will it verify? And is it too late?

Accounting for the rain that moved through the country over the last week will go a long way in determining how the U.S. Drought Monitor will look Thursday. We examine some areas that are likely to improve and others that are likely to degrade.

Sorghum production has a good chance of rebounding, even with drought lingering in the top production state of Kansas.