Weather

A gradual change in weather underway across the Heartland

On the Plains, cool weather in Montana and the Dakotas contrasts with lingering heat in parts of Oklahoma and Texas. Scattered but highly beneficial showers dot the central and southern Plains.

Across the Corn Belt, hot weather persists in the Ohio Valley, but cool air covers the upper Midwest. Thunderstorms in the vicinity of a cold front stretch from the lower Great Lakes region into the middle Mississippi Valley. Later Thursday, highs above 90° will be limited to the southern Corn Belt, in stark contrast to Wednesday’s readings—which reached 106° in Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; and Columbia, Missouri.

In the South, hot, dry conditions are bringing renewed stress to pastures and immature summer crops that had been benefiting from an extended period of showery weather.

In the West, isolated showers are confined to the southern Rockies. Meanwhile, cool weather persists along the Pacific Coast. Elsewhere, warm, dry weather is promoting crop growth and fieldwork, including Northwestern small grain harvesting.