CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – Showers moved through the U.S. Midwest and Delta in the past day, adding moisture to already soggy fields after this week’s violent storms dumped several inches of rain across the region and halted crop planting, forecasters said on Wednesday.
But the southern Plains wheat country is generally dry and chilly as lows dipped into the upper-30s Fahrenheit on Wednesday morning. That was good news for the wheat crop in Oklahoma and Texas, which would have been hurt if temperatures stayed below 30F for several hours. However, Thursday morning is expected to be a couple degrees cooler, forecasters said.
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Since the weekend heavy rains of 1.5 to 3 inches have fallen from southeast Indiana and central Ohio southward to Alabama. Lighter rains of an inch or less stretched into Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Rains are forecast to end in the eastern Midwest on Wednesday but light showers are expected to linger in the northern Midwest through Saturday. It will be cool as well, with highs in the upper 40 to low 50s F.
“Planting is going to be very slow in the northern Midwest. The central and southern Midwest should get a lot of planting down towards the end of this week through early next week,” said Don Keeney, senior agricultural meteorologist at MDA Weather Services.
The northern Midwest is going to stay wet through the weekend. The extended outlook also calls for more rain.
“They are going to be struggling to plant through the next 15 days or so,” Keeney said.
Corn planting is already running about a week behind normal due to a chilly spring in the United States, the world’s top grain producer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on Monday that farmers had seeded 19 percent of their corn acres as of Sunday, behind the typical pace of 28 percent by late April.
The southern Plains wheat belt saw 0.1 to 0.5 inch of rain over the past day, with 15 percent coverage, according an advisory from Commodity Weather Group.
The best chance for rain in Plains hard red winter wheat area is mid to late next week “but the forecast is slightly drier in the southwest. This will leave about a third of the belt at most risk for persisting stress to jointing-heading wheat,” CWG said.
U.S. winter wheat conditions have deteriorated this month due to drought. More plant stress is expected given drought conditions and a turn to hot weather.
“There’s no rain forecast for the next week. Temperatures will be well into 90s this weekend through early next week,” Keeney said.
