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USDA weekly ag weather forecast calling for cooler weather in wheat regions
Weather prognostications that may be of interest to Western Canadian wheat growers are calling for cooler conditions in the wheat-growing regions of the US Plains region, and on a lesser note, across the US Midwest, which may interest growers in Eastern Canada, as well.
April 6, 2009 By AgWeb.com
April 6, 2009
The weather forecast from the United States Deparment of Agriculture (USDA) says early in the week, a spring storm will move from the lower Great Lakes region into Eastern Canada, producing showers and locally severe thunderstorms along the Atlantic Seaboard and some wet snow in the Great Lakes States.
Later today, snow showers will develop in the Appalachians. In the storm’s wake, cold air will overspread the South, East, and Midwest. Across the South, freezes on April 7 and 8 will could pose a threat to jointing to heading winter wheat, blooming fruit and nut trees, and emerged summer crops, such as corn. Elsewhere, a storm system will move ashore in California on Wednesday, resulting in mid- to late week rain and snow showers in the West.
The National Weather Service six- to 10-day outlook for April 11-15 calls for wetter-than-normal conditions across the majority of the US, although drier-than-normal weather will prevail in southern portions of Texas and Florida. Meanwhile, below-normal temperatures from the Rockies westward will contrast with warmer-than-normal weather across the eastern half of the nation.
In the West, chilly conditions linger across the central and southern Rockies, but warm, dry weather elsewhere in the region favors fieldwork and rapid crop development.
On the Plains, cold, dry weather prevails. Flooding continues to affect portions of the north-central U.S., while producers on the central and southern High Plains are monitoring the effects of recent and ongoing freezes on jointing winter wheat. This morning’s low temperatures dipped into the 20- to 25-degree F range as far south as northern Texas and western Oklahoma.
In the Corn Belt, rain and snow showers linger across eastern portions of the region, while cold, breezy weather prevails elsewhere in the Midwest. Fieldwork largely remains on hold due to cool, wet soils.
In the South, drier, much cooler air is arriving, although soggy soils continue to hamper spring fieldwork in many areas. Warm, humid conditions linger, however, along the Atlantic Seaboard, excluding parched southern Florida.
