A mostly dry October weather forecast should allow for steady harvest progress in Illinois.
State Climatologist Trent Ford says the outlook for the rest of the month is drier than normal.
“If I were talking about this in June, we would have problems but since we are at the start of harvest season this could actually be good news. Mild temperatures, cooler nights and dry weather can spur on harvest progress.”
He says there are pockets of drought in southern and western Illinois that could use some rain, “But the predominant impact right now with agriculture is we don’t want to see extremely wet conditions, so this weather may not be too bad of a thing right now for this time of year.”
Ford says October rains last year disrupted harvest for several farmers, and that doesn’t look to be the case this year, but if another tropical storm or hurricane forms, that outlook could quickly change.
