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Weather change coming, but will it be enough to help crops?
Just how bad are the current hot and dry conditions impacting much of the Midwest?
“Bad. It’s bad. This really isn’t a good time for this to be happening,” says Dennis Todey, director of USDA’s Midwest Climate Hub.
He says cooler weather will move in this weekend along with increased chances of rain, especially in the Eastern Corn Belt.
“Corn was a bit more delayed there, so it could help that a little bit more. With soybeans, obviously you have a chance at helping them a bit more this late in the year,” he says. “But as you get over towards Iowa and the western part of the corn belt, there’s lesser chance for precipitation out of this. So less opportunity to help them out.”
Todey says the remnants of Hurricane Laura will reach southeast Missouri, then take a right turn up the Ohio River Valley. National Weather Service maps show 2- to 4-inch rain totals are possible, in a fairly narrow band, as the storm moves east over the next 48 hours.
