The Fastline Blog

Monday, November 9, 2009:
Combines were rolling all across the Plains, Corn Belt and Delta throughout this past weekend, and for most of those same areas it will be a while before harvesting is shut down again for any real length of time. Later today through early tomorrow could feature a band of rain across eastern [...]

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Friday, November 6, 2009:
I think that there are a lot of details to be worked out in regards to how the weather plays out exactly next week (mainly as it pertains to tropical weather coming out of the Gulf of Mexico and how it influences the weather in the Lower 48, particularly for the Delta [...]

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Thursday, Novemeber 5, 2009:
We remain in the middle of the best stretch of harvest weather that we have seen so far this fall, and the weather forecast for next week continues to look more and more optimistic towards continued good harvest progress taking place during that time period. Except for the extreme eastern Corn Belt [...]

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009:
Rain was found over the past 24 hours across much of the northeastern half to two-thirds of the Corn Belt (with rain early on this Wednesday still scattered across areas east of the Mississippi River). A lot of this activity was no more than sprinkles, but we did see a few places [...]

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009:
Like last week, the national soybean harvest progress number released this past Monday was not the lowest figure of the last thirty years, but it was very close. At 51 percent done as of November 1, the soybean harvest pace this year is faster than only the 50 percent completion mark of [...]

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Friday, October 30, 2009:
Flash flood warnings were the rule, certainly not the exception, early on this Friday from extreme southeastern Iowa southward through eastern Missouri, far western Illinois, eastern Arkansas, and northwestern Louisiana as that area has seen heavy rainfall the past 24 hours (and, more importantly, that rain fell on already saturated ground). It [...]

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Thursday, October 29, 2009:
There are not many changes to talk about with regards to the weather forecast today, which means way too much rain (and for some areas, snow) in the near term but easily the best harvest weather of the fall season for next week. The southern Delta and areas west of Interstate 35 [...]

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009:
Rainfall was not especially heavy in the southeastern Corn Belt over the past 24 hours, but was fairly widespread across Ohio, Indiana, southern Michigan, and all but northwestern Illinois and the 0.25-0.75 inch amounts that fell were easily enough to keep harvesting there stalled. Heavier rains were found in the northern Delta, [...]

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009:
Harvest progress numbers released on Monday showed that the national soybean harvest was no longer the slowest in the last 30 years…but it was close! At 44 percent done as of October 25, that figure barely surpassed the 43 percent completion figure from 1985 for that same date (and matched the 44 [...]

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Monday, October 26, 2009:
It was difficult to find locations in the Corn Belt that did not see at least “some” rainfall for the period from Friday morning to this morning, so that meant that harvest progress was spotty at best with the vast majority of the region getting nothing done. Missouri and Illinois have been [...]

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