Weather

Showery pattern expanding across the Heartland

Across the Corn Belt, scattered showers and thunderstorms are maintaining generally favorable growing conditions for corn and soybeans. However, pockets of drought in the southwestern Corn Belt have left soybeans rated 19% very poor to poor in Missouri, where topsoil moisture was rated 67% very short to short on June 17.

On the Plains, locally heavy showers and thunderstorms are affecting Nebraska and portions of neighboring states. A separate area of rain is falling across the northern High Plains. In contrast, dry weather has returned across the southern High Plains, where recent rainfall provided only limited drought relief. On June 17, topsoil moisture was rated more than one-half very short to short in Texas (73%), Oklahoma (67%), Colorado (60%), and Kansas (5    5%). On the same date, more than one-quarter (26%) of the U.S. cotton crop was rated in very poor to poor condition, led by Texas (39%) and Oklahoma (24%).

In the South, locally heavy showers in the western Gulf Coast region are easing or eradicating dryness that had developed in recent weeks. Elsewhere in the South, hot, humid weather favors a rapid crop development pace.

In the West, cool, showery weather lingers across the northern Rockies. Dry weather covers the remainder of the West, while hot weather is overspreading northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

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