So Much for Those Cooler Conditions, at Least for a While

BY DANIEL GRANT, FARM WEEK NOW

It appears the run of moderate temperatures has fizzled out as heat has returned to the Midwest.

A trough parked over Illinois the second half of July should move east, which will allow warmer, drier air to penetrate the state this month, according to Eric Snodgrass, ag meteorologist/director of undergraduate studies for the University of Illinois Department of Atmospheric Sciences and co-founder of Agrible.

“Illinois, the next 10 days, will carry of bit of a dry bias,” Snodgrass said Wednesday at the Illinois Farm Bureau Farm Income and Innovations Conference in Normal. “As the trough moves to the east, the Midwest will warm up again.

“August 2018 is not going to look like August 2017 (the 12th-coolest on record), which had one of the longest grain-fill periods I’ve seen.”

However, the crops might be far enough along this year to avoid major deterioration down the stretch.

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of the corn crop was in the dough stage the first of this week, 34 percent ahead of the average pace.

Meanwhile, 77 percent of soybeans are setting pods, 36 percent ahead of the average pace, and 12 percent of sorghum turned color, 4 percent ahead of average.

“Growing-degree days are running 300 to 400 ahead of average,” Snodgrass said. “We got real lucky the (second half of July) with some cooler weather (that slowed corn development from pollination to black layer).”

Statewide, the temperature in July averaged 75.1 degrees, 0.3-degree below normal. Temperatures ranged from a high of 99 degrees in Flora on July 5 to an overnight low of 48 at multiple locations, according to Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey.

Rainfall last month averaged 3.41 inches across the state, 0.67-inch below normal, but was highly scattered. Local totals ranged from 8.28 inches in Beecher to 0.59-inch in Park Ridge.

“Drought in the Central Plains tends to move east. One of the biggest problems right now is in parts of Missouri, which is probably the worst spot in the Corn Belt,” Snodgrass said. “As we finish out the season, parts of Illinois and Iowa also need rain.”

Parts of eight counties (Adams, Calhoun, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough and Warren) are in moderate drought, while portions of 26 other counties scattered around the state were abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Elsewhere, some portions of the state received above-average rainfall last month, mostly between Interstates 70 and 72, Angel noted.