Weather and Market Commentary- July 1, 2009

Feeds:: Posts; Comments

Weather and Market Commentary- July 1, 2009

July 1, 2009 by sabrina829

Wednesday, July 1, 2009:

When looking at the high temperature map from yesterday, one’s eyes are immediately drawn to the sub-70 degree readings that were seen in northern Illinois, far eastern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. For most places, those represented readings that were more than 15 degrees below normal, and for locations like Rockford (high of 64) and Eau Claire (high of 59) they represented the coolest high temperatures ever recorded for June 30. More sub-70 degree highs are forecast for much of that same area today. Our current time frame will represent the peak of this cool period, but temperatures are still likely to stay below normal in a large part of the Midwest through at least next Tuesday. Thursday/Friday of next week may be a time period when some heat is again felt in a lot of the Midwest, but overall I think that the very worst of any above-normal temperatures for the Corn Belt will confined to the western fringes of the region and points westward through the middle of this month.

I continue to be of the opinion that the ongoing formation of an El Nino event in the equatorial Pacific will limit the duration of above-normal temperatures in the Corn Belt for the rest of this summer. Rainfall still looks to be quite limited across much of the Nation’s midsection for the next couple days, but things will get active in some areas as we get into the upcoming holiday weekend. It will be western and southwestern parts of the region that see the rain first, developing there mainly on Friday. That rain moves into the eastern Corn Belt on Saturday for mainly areas south of Interstate 80. The Sunday/Monday time frame of next week looks to be a period when we should finally get a widespread rain into the Delta (though I should note that parts of Arkansas did see some good rains already yesterday). Rain chances may begin again in far northwestern parts of the Corn Belt for the Tuesday/Wednesday time frame of next week as well. All in all, it is still not a bad forecast for crops in the Nation’s midsection, as long as expected rains do indeed verify.