Wednesday, September 2, 2009:
The meteorological summer ended this past Monday (it began on June 1), and temperature data showed what everyone already knew: this summer was really, really cold! Except for Ohio, every major corn and soybean producing state in the Midwest recorded at least one of their fifteen coldest summers ever, with this summer being one of the ten coldest ever in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Nebraska (topped by Michigan, where summer temperatures ranked as the fifth coolest ever). For the Midwest as a whole, it looks like the summer will rank as about the eighth coldest; recent years like 1992 and 2004 were colder, while recent years like 1982 and 1985 were just a little warmer. It was also a fairly wet summer for a lot of the region, with summer rainfall in Iowa and Illinois ranking as the twelfth most ever recorded. For the Midwest as a whole, it will rank just inside the top 25 wettest ever.
We are not starting off the meteorological autumn very warm either, but at least there is no frost yet and it still looks to be frost-free for the next couple weeks. It has not been very wet as of late, but that is changing a bit this morning as scattered thunderstorms are found in eastern Kansas and western Missouri. The upper level low pressure system responsible for those rains is going to make for a tricky forecast over the next week or so, as weather models typically handle these systems very poorly. The system is likely not going to move very fast, so there will be rains around some part of the Midwest for quite a while. My best guess right now is for rains to be mainly in the Missouri River Valley near term, head into the Delta for the weekend, and then into the southeastern Corn Belt for the middle of next week. Not until a cold front comes through around September 10-11 will we finally be able to be rid of this system. Slow movement of the weather system means that some pretty sizable rainfall totals are likely for those areas impacted by it.
Freese-Notis Weather/Weather Trades, Inc. Des Moines, Iowa Copyright 2009 – All Rights Reserved
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We farm 50 miles northeast of Grand Rapids, Mich. Both Monday and Tuesday mornings this week we had light frost on our roof tops! That is really scary as we are easily three weeks late with corn and soys. Bring on that Indian Summer!