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Conditions are right for rapid drought development

The associate director of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center says rapid onset drought is possible across several states in the next couple of weeks.

Melanie Widhalm says that can cause problems during harvest.

“It will help you get into the fields. It will help your crop dry down in time, but you do want to watch out for the risk of fire,” she says. “So combine fires, field fires. There are a lot of burn bands across the region right now because of that elevated fire risk.”

She tells Brownfield southeastern Ohio’s drought has been one of the worst hit areas in the Eastern Corn Belt.

“Really just missed out on those rains week after week after week and so they actually have some of the most severe drought conditions that you can have right now,” she says. “And that’s certainly having an impact on their pasture productivity.”

Widhalm says she isn’t overly concerned about yield loss at this point, but rains are needed soon to help finish the soybean crop.

AUDIO: Melissa Widhalm, MRCC