Ag Weather Forum

Extreme late spring-early summer heat in Europe is becoming more frequent.

Heavy rainfall will help ease many areas of drought across the U.S. through the end of May.

The U.S. Drought Monitor uses multiple factors beyond rainfall to classify drought intensity, but has limitations including lagging indicators, data gaps, and human authoring biases.

Soil moisture stands to offer both short- and long-term benefits for row crops.

A major severe weather event is forecast to develop for this afternoon and evening from Texas into the Midwest. Significant hail and damaging winds will be a problem, but another round of strong tornadoes will also be an issue.

Widespread areas of rain and severe weather are forecast through at least next Wednesday. That may include a little snow in pockets of the Northern Plains.

Very warm weather means surface moisture will evaporate before soaking into the soil profile.

The building El Nino, likely to be among the strongest on record, will have widespread weather impacts for much of the globe.

Robust El Nino events are accompanied by generally large U.S. corn production.

Cold temperatures may produce areas of frost across the Northern and Central Plains as well as the Midwest this week.

Sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean continue to rise, crossing the threshold into El Nino territory. Forecasts suggest this year's El Nino could become the strongest on record.

La Nina's late impact in the Great Plains resembles 2022 and 2023.

Drought is a major problem for a lot of the Plains, South and Southeast, but these areas are in line to pick up some heavy rainfall this week.

Soil moisture concerns for row-crop planting add to heat and dryness-enhanced wildfire damage.

Soil moisture is a growing problem for large areas of the country, especially in the Plains, South and Southeast.

A sharp cold front will move through the country Friday and over the weekend. Significant severe weather is forecast for Friday, followed by extremely cold temperatures this weekend. That will cause frosts and freezes for large portions of the Plains and Midwest.

Aussie wheat output could drop sharply if El Nino forms as expected.

Many producers wait for morning 4-inch soil temperatures to hit and consistently stay above the 50-degree-Fahrenheit mark before they begin planting. That line continues to move north.

Though drought has been increasing significantly in much of the Plains, the weather pattern will favor at least some precipitation there into next week.

The extent of drought to begin the growing season is higher than 2023, 2015 and 2009 in the central U.S.