Current Weather from Ag-Meteorologist Greg Soulje - Updated 11-17-2009
On the Plains, mild weather across northern areas is promoting late-season winter wheat growth. In contrast, cool air is settling across the central and southern Plains. A Freeze Warning was in effect Tuesday morning as far south as western and central Texas, while light precipitation lingers across eastern Kansas.
Across the Corn Belt, rain is hampering harvest activities in the middle Mississippi, lower Missouri, and Ohio Valleys. However, fieldwork continues across the northern Corn Belt, from the Dakotas to Michigan. By November 15, the national corn harvest remained at the slowest pace in the last 35 years, with 54% of the crop harvested. Previously, the slowest harvest pace by mid-November occurred in 1992 (59% harvested).
In the South, dry but cool weather has returned to the lower Mississippi Valley, following Monday’s light rainfall. Currently, isolated showers are spreading into the Southeast, trailed by a surge of cooler air.
In the West, showery weather continues across the Pacific Northwest, but dry weather elsewhere favors autumn fieldwork. In California, fieldwork activities include cotton harvesting and winter wheat planting.
A slow-moving storm centered over the middle Mississippi Valley will drift northward, reaching the Great Lakes and Northeastern States by Friday. Additional rainfall could total 1 to 2 inches from the Midwest into the Northeast.
During the weekend, a second storm may form near the Gulf Coast and deliver rain to the Southeast.
Meanwhile, a series of Pacific storms will hammer northern California and the Northwest, where 5-day precipitation totals could reach 5 to 10 inches. Mostly dry weather will continue, however, from southern California into the Southwest.
Looking ahead, the 6- to 10-day outlook calls for below-normal temperatures across the southern Plains and the Southwest, while warmer-than-normal weather will prevail from the Midwest into the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States. Meanwhile, below-normal precipitation across northern and central California and the Intermountain West will contrast with wetter-than-normal conditions from the middle and lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic States.
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U.S. Drought Monitor
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National / Regional Radar
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