South America Calling

The weather pattern remains very favorable for developing second-crop (safrinha) corn in central Brazil as episodes of scattered showers and thunderstorms continue. The crop has been able to take advantage of early planting and an active and extended second half of the rainy season.

Other than stretches of a few days of drier conditions, the safrinha corn season has not incurred any dryness during this 2019 season. This follows the month of March when rainfall totals were near to above normal. The most consistent rain was from Mato Grosso eastward into the northeastern interior (western Bahia, Tocantins, and southwestern portions of Piaui and Maranhao).

Heavy thunderstorms occurred in north Argentina and Paraguay during the weekend. This is reported to have caused severe flooding and is likely to have affected the harvest of soybeans and cotton. Some loss to unharvested cotton appears likely. There are no significant concerns, at this time, for mature crops or harvesting in major growing areas of Cordoba, Santa Fe or Buenos Aires.

Our latest calculation of the sea surface temperature departure in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean for the first half of April was plus 1.1 degrees Celsius. This is down from plus 1.5 in March, but still within weak El Nino levels. Recent flooding in northern Argentina is being blamed on El Nino.

Michael Palmerino can be reached at Michael.palmerino@dtn.com

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