News

Rain is coming

An agricultural meteorologist says a much-needed rain in the forecast for the Western Corn Belt.

Drew Lerner with World Weather Incorporated says Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and other northern states will get a fair amount of rain through the weekend.

“I would say no less than three-quarters of an inch of rain for much of that region and we’ll see a lot of one to two inch rain amounts. There will be the potential for a little more in some locations, because this will be a slow moving system.”

Lerner says while the rain will cause harvest delays, it is needed because a big part of the Western Corn Belt has only had 50 to 70% of normal precipitation for the last six months. He says the Eastern Corn Belt is not likely to see as much rain heading into the weekend.

“In fact, a lot of those areas will be dry along with the Delta and Tennessee River Basin. They could go a full 10 days without any rain and that would be good for them as far as crop maturation and harvesting.”

He says a drier and cooler weather pattern is expected across much of the Corn Belt next week.