Current Weather from Ag-Meteorologist Greg Soulje - Updated 7-29-2010

On the Plains, scattered thunderstorms across northern areas are causing minor wheat harvest delays. On the southern Plains, pastures and summer crops continue to benefit from abundant soil moisture reserves, despite a recent drying trend.

Across the Corn Belt, warm, mostly dry weather and abundant soil moisture levels are maintaining generally favorable growing conditions for reproductive to filling corn and soybeans. Some lowland flooding lingers, however, mainly in the middle Mississippi Valley.

In the South, hot weather is maintaining stress on pastures and rain-fed summer crops in parts of the Atlantic Coast States. In Virginia, for example, USDA rated 37% of the cotton crop in very poor to poor condition on July 25, along with 71% of the pastureland.

In the West, isolated showers are mostly confined to Arizona and Utah. Cool weather prevails along the immediate Pacific Coast, but hot weather elsewhere in the West favors rapid crop development. Wildfires remain a threat in parts of California and the Great Basin.

During the next 5 days, a “ring of fire” precipitation pattern will affect the nation, with showers and thunderstorms wrapping around a ridge of high pressure centered over the south-central U.S. The south-central U.S. and the Pacific Coast States will remain mostly dry, but 1- to 3-inch rainfall totals will be common from the Four Corners States northeastward into the upper Midwest, then eastward to the Atlantic Coast.

By week’s end, heat will be mostly suppressed across the South; by early next week, however, hot weather will surge as far north as the southern Corn Belt.

Looking ahead, the 6- to 10-day outlook calls for near- to below-normal temperatures in the West and Northeast, while warmer-than-normal weather will prevail along and east of a line from Minnesota to Texas. Meanwhile, above-normal rainfall from the northern half of the Plains into the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States will contrast with drier-than-normal conditions in parts of the Northwest and from the southern Rockies to the southern Atlantic Coast.

Additional Links:

U.S. Drought Monitor
NOAA / NWS Long-Lead Outlooks

National / Regional Radar
Weather Alerts / Watches / Warnings