Weather Report: Rain Halts Planting, Helps Emerging Crops In The Corn Belt

In the West, cool but dry weather favors fieldwork in California. Meanwhile, widespread rain and snow showers are further improving water-supply prospects across the northern Intermountain West.

On the Plains, cool, mostly dry weather prevails, following Monday’s scattered showers and thunderstorms. In general, soil moisture levels remain mostly favorable for winter wheat and emerging summer crops.

In the Corn Belt, cool, rainy weather is slowing or halting corn and soybean planting activities, but providing beneficial moisture for emerging summer crops.

In the South, scattered showers are confined to interior portions of the region. Elsewhere, dry, warmer weather is promoting fieldwork and crop development.

Outlook: Fruit producers in the Great Lakes and Northeastern States will continue to monitor their crops for signs of damage, following the recently ended cool spell. For the remainder of the week, a pair of storm systems will cross the nation, maintaining cool, showery conditions across the nation’s northern tier. Farther south, scattered showers and locally severe thunderstorms will develop along the storms’ trailing cold fronts. By week’s end, snow showers will subside across the Intermountain West. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for May 16-20 calls for near- to above-normal temperatures across the majority of the U.S. Cooler-than-normal weather will be confined to the western Gulf Coast region and the Northeast. Meanwhile, below-normal precipitation in the Midwest and Northeast will contrast with wetter-than-normal conditions in the Northwest and from the southern Plains into the Southeast.

1. Can you guess your cow's NEFAs?
2. Vance Publishing's 40 under 40
3. Dairy’s commitment to food security advances through partnerships
4. ERS ag research counts
5. Minn. raw milk cheese outbreak swells to 25
6. Block cheese down a penny on CME

1. 4 rules for growing a business or industry
2. Seven jobs more dangerous than farming
3. Chocolate milk a top post-workout food
4. What do dairy exports mean for Minnesota?
5. D.C. Watch: Farm bill progressing
6. April milk production up 0.3 percent

1. Commentary: Slanting the statistics
2. Buffet concerned about soil and starvation
3. Seven jobs more dangerous than farming
4. Cold spring stunts upper Midwest hay crop
5. N.M. rancher charged with 43 counts of animal cruelty