Certainly it’s been pretty dry around our area for the past few weeks with only .02″ of rainfall reported in Wausau for the month of June so far.  A good chunk of the country is on the dry side.  The June 5th drought monitor shows most of the southern half of the country is dealing with abnormally dry conditions as well as part of the north central U.S.  The worst drought is reported in parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, west Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and northern Florida.  It’s also of key concern that the major corn growing areas of Iowa, Illinois, northern Indiana, northern Missouri, and southern MN are quite dry.   If this doesn’t change within the next few weeks it will likely impact yields.

The 8 to 14 day precipitation outlook from CPC for June 16-22 offers  a moist forecast from the northwest part of the country through Minnesota.  It also shows above normal precipitation possible around the southeast U.S.  So the good news is that some sections should get a bit of relief from drought.  Meanwhile rainfall is expected to be near or below normal in much of the rest of the country.  By the way, the dry soil conditions around the Midwest and Plains could very well lead to above normal temperatures in upcoming weeks.  This is because dry ground turns more of the sun’s energy into heat than does wet ground.

Posted under Ag Weather, Drought, forecast