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Cooler and drier April in the forecast

A state meteorologist says one more band of wet weather is expected over the weekend which will set back some planting activities.

Michigan’s Jeff Andresen says, “It’s going to take a little bit of time for the water to soak in and for things to dry off again, so there will be unfortunately delays with this.”

“But on the positive side, it is giving us some recharge of our soil water here before we get into the growing season,” he says.

The U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday said widespread improvements were made in the Midwest the last week of March following a significant ice and winter storm that moved through parts of Wisconsin and  Michigan. As of April 1^st, more than 60 percent of the Midwest had some level of drought conditions.

For mid-April, Andresen says cooler and drier conditions are expected.

“Especially versus what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks,” he says. “A fairly big change is indicated here in the medium range into the latter part of April. That isn’t optimal, but at least it’s drier.”

The latest weather outlooks from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest somewhat wetter and drier conditions through June.

Andresen gave his outlook during part of this week’s Michigan State University Extension Field Crop Virtual Breakfast.