The Fastline Blog

Friday, October 16, 2009:

Rainfall amounts were certainly not heavy yesterday in the Corn Belt but they were certainly widespread to make yesterday about the dreariest day of this week. Clouds, fog, and lot of drizzle and light rain were responsible for those conditions. It will be a little better today, but still a lot of cloud cover and areas of light rain and drizzle so overall we are still looking at another day of very poor drying conditions. Better conditions are still ahead though. We should start to see a lot more sunshine for tomorrow, though temperatures will stay cold. Sunday morning still looks to be a cold morning, with temperatures in the 30-35 degree range over most places east of Interstate 35, with those temperatures as far south as the Ohio River Valley and even into the far northern Delta and northern parts of the Southeast region of the Nation. Rapid warming is going to be seen though for Sunday and Monday, and overall I still expect those days to be featuring the best weather seen so far in this entire autumn period for a lot of the Nation’s midsection.

Sunshine should be abundant and breezes should be pretty stiff; combine that with the warm temperatures, and we are looking at close to optimal drying conditions on those days. It still looks to be just a brief break from the rain though, as rain chances will begin in the far northwestern Corn Belt for Monday night. There are huge weather model differences on how the rain system for the middle of next week plays out exactly, and thus a lot can still change with regards to the weather during that period. My best guess right now is that everyone in the Corn Belt and Delta eventually gets enough rain to shut down the harvest once again. I would guess rainfall amounts at mostly 0.50 to 1.00″, with the best potential for heavier amounts being over northwestern parts of the region (especially northern Iowa, eastern South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin). Only because it is Friday am I making these statements; they really are not much more than “educated guesses” based on weather model inconsistencies. I would expect that whatever rain system does decide to move through next week is followed by a few days of dry weather, starting about Friday in the western Corn Belt.

Freese-Notis Weather/Weather Trades, Inc. Des Moines, Iowa Copyright 2009 – All Rights Reserved

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