It looks like the weather forecast might be a mixed bag in late May and early June. DTN meteorologist John Baranick said there is still a concern about dry weather in rural America.
“For parts it will be, but for other parts, it’s going to be kind of wet, and honestly, it’s kind of coming in the right combination for the right areas. I mean, recently, the Midwest has been pretty wet. A lot of folks have gotten planting done anyway, but it’s been pretty wet, and they could use drier conditions to kind of finish things up, do any other field work they need out there, let some things drain out a little bit, so they’re not too soggy, and it looks like it’s going to be drier here across a good chunk of the Midwest, here, coming up.”
It’s been wetter further south in the U.S.
“Some other things are going on in the South. There’s been an old front that’s been lingering across the South, and it produced plenty of rainfall over the weekend, so hopefully it didn’t ruin your barbecue or the rest of your weekend, but you know there was plenty of rain down there in those drought areas, but that’ll kind of creep north into the Midwest here for a couple of days this week, but again get pushed south, and it’ll stay dry across most of the Midwest. So, when I say Midwest, I’m talking like Minnesota to Missouri through the Ohio Valley northward.”
The drier areas in the Midwest will notice warmer temperatures through the next week as well.
Looking further south, a front will continue to stay in the region.
“So, we’re going to see daily showers and thunderstorms from Texas and Oklahoma all the way to the Carolinas, and then waffling a little bit farther north and a little bit farther south, really throughout the week and weekend. So, I think that’s good news. I mean, a lot of those areas are in drought. We’ve seen some good increases in soil moisture. We’ve seen some good reductions that should pop up on the drought monitor here on Thursday, and we’ll continue to have the good conditions with us here going into early June. So overall, that’s good news.”
Heading to the Western U.S., there could be at least some moisture in the forecast, but the question is where it will fall.
“For those really dry areas out in the West and the Plains, you look at the drought monitor there, there’s red all over the map, and we’ve got a system in the west that’s going to sit there, and it’s pulling moisture up and heat along the spine of the Rockies, and we’re going to see daily showers and thunderstorms there as well. Whether or not that leads to the drought-reducing rainfall we need is a little bit more questionable. I mean, it’s scattered showers and thunderstorms. We all know how that works. They’re going to miss some areas, but they’re going to hit some good areas too, so we’ll just have to see where that happens. But I think there are some good areas there from Montana all the way down through west Texas that’ll be in drought-reducing conditions here over this next week.”