Weather

A wide-range of spring weather, temperatures across the Heartland

Across the Corn Belt, showers and thunderstorms are rumbling across the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region.  Chilly air is spreading across the upper Midwest, while warm, humid weather prevails from the middle Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley and the lower Great Lakes region.  Midwestern fieldwork activities, including some early-season planting efforts, continue in areas with relatively dry soils.

On the Plains, Thursday evening’s outbreak of severe weather across eastern Nebraska resulted in several tornadoes and numerous reports of large hail.  Early Friday, less active weather has returned, although some wet snow is falling in western Nebraska and environs.  Currently, chilly conditions across the northwestern half of the Plains contrast with lingering warmth farther south.  Friday’s high temperatures will top 80°F in much of Oklahoma and Texas.

In the South, warm, dry weather favors fieldwork and crop development, well in advance of approaching storminess.  However, fieldwork remains on hold in some of the wettest areas of the mid-South, including some bottomland areas that remain flooded.

In the West, late-season snow is falling across the central Rockies and environs.  Chilly, dry weather covers the remainder of the western U.S., except for a return to above-normal temperatures in the Pacific Northwest.  Some fruit producers in western Colorado and eastern Utah are preparing for the likelihood of weekend freezes, while parts of New Mexico are bracing for a final day with a significantly elevated wildfire threat.