Updated Sep. 30, 2019 4:16 PM
It’s going to rain in parts of the Corn Belt this week. In other breaking news, Taylor Swift will sing a breakup song, and pumpkin spice will make its annual appearance in everything.
It’s been that kind of year for Corn Belt farmers, with early season flooding and rain causing planting delays and difficulties throughout the season.
“We have been able to barely start any harvest, just a few soybeans,” Nebraska farmer Edwin C. Brummels told AccuWeather in an email. “We would have a big week of harvesting if it would not rain.”
That’s not in the forecast, however.
“A big part of the story is the wet weather,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls. “This is a wet, unsettled week in the Corn Belt and this is going to slow things down. In some of the low-lying areas, this water is going to take a while to evaporate and sink into the ground. This is definitely going to cause harvest delays.”
AccuWeather is calling for a stormy pattern to remain across the northern Plains through the Great Lakes early this week, with heavy rain expected from the central Plains into Michigan. Then, a new storm will develop at midweek again across the northern half of the Plains with more heavy rain from the central Plains into Michigan.
“From central Illinois west in Nebraska and then north up into Wisconsin – really key, prime growing areas – harvest operations are going to grind to a halt,” Nicholls said. “When you get soaked like this it takes a while for things to dry out.”
On the positive side, “It isn’t going to get quite cold enough for a frost this week,” said Nicholls.
AccuWeather meteorologists expect the weather next week will be more favorable for harvest operations with five days of dry weather. It will be largely dry and hot across the southern Plains into parts of the mid-Atlantic for midweek, with potential record-tying high temperatures Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Farther east, things are different.
“In my area, we are not in too bad shape,” Ohio farmer Fred Traver said in an email to AccuWeather. “The rain should help finish off the later-season beans that have not fully matured yet, along with getting wheat and cover crops started as well. Hopefully we don’t get any more rain for a while and we will be all set.”
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