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Some Midwest drought relief possible

Relief on the way?

“The drought monitor right now says about 70% of the lower 48 is in some stage of drought.

Eric Snodgrass, chief science fellow with Nutrien Ag Solutions, says some relief to ease the drought could be on the way this month.

“It takes the terrible early winter weather, a super active freeze-thaw cycle, big storm systems to come out of the southwest. You know, on the southwest flow of the jet stream, tapping into the Gulf moisture, that’s what it takes for drought relief.”  He says, “Is there any of that coming? Yeah, we actually have a couple of systems coming through here as we try to work our way toward the end of this month.”

However, he tells Brownfield he’s not sure how much soil moisture can be replenished before winter sets in.

“December could get really cold pretty quickly.”  He says, “You get into a cold December and you could lock in any drought that was still lingering from fall because you’ve now frozen the topsoil and you can’t put more water into it in that situation.”

Snodgrass says this marks eight of the last 10 years the Midwest has struggled with a fall drought.

Brownfield spoke with Snodgrass at the American Bankers Association 2025 Agricultural Bankers Conference in St. Louis,

AUDIO: Eric Snodgrass