Weather
Storms, heat & oppressive humidity across the Midwestern Corn Belt
Across the Corn Belt, heat has crept into southwestern production areas (e.g. Missouri), where Wednesday’s high temperatures should approach 100°F. Meanwhile, scattered showers and thunderstorms across the southern and eastern Corn Belt are benefiting summer crops, while extremely dry conditions are maintaining significant crop stress in the far upper Midwest.
On the Plains, mostly dry conditions persist, despite the passage of a cold front across Montana and the Dakotas. The front has only slightly reduced temperatures across the northern Plains, which continue to suffer from a long-running drought. On August 8, rangeland and pastures were rated more than three-quarters very poor to poor throughout the northern Plains, led by Montana (87%). Meanwhile on the central and southern Plains, Wednesday’s high temperatures will again approach or reach 100°F.
In the South, hot, humid weather is promoting a rapid pace of crop development but locally reducing topsoil moisture reserves. Outside of mountainous areas and away from the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, Wednesday’s high temperatures should generally range from 95 to 100°F.
In the West, a resurgent monsoon circulation is producing scattered Southwestern showers. The remainder of the western U.S. is experiencing dry, blazing hot conditions. Wednesday’s high temperatures should exceed 100°F as far north as southcentral and southeastern Washington. In fact, Washington led the country on August 8 in topsoil moisture rated very short to short (100%), along with very poor to poor ratings for spring wheat (93%) and rangeland and pastures (96%).
