Too wet and too dry cuts through Michigan

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Too wet and too dry cuts through Michigan

A climatologist says Michigan has been the Midwest’s precipitation limit for the past few weeks.

Nathan Moore of Michigan State University says a line runs diagonally through the middle of the mitten between the record floods in the U.S. Midwest and the drier regions of the eastern Corn Belt.

“In the south of the state, the soils dry out faster, and the further south you go, the more dramatic it is. In areas like Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, the soils are much drier and warmer,” he explains.

While the short-term forecast predicts cooler and drier temperatures, further rain is expected in the coming weeks due to activity over the Pacific, but precipitation amounts are likely to be lower.

“The smaller amounts, not the five and six inches that we’ve seen before,” he predicts. “You can see the wave trains moving through. There’s a sequence of warm fronts, cold fronts, warm fronts, cold fronts that are just going to move through.”

He believes that soil evaporation rates should be more moderate during this period, which could benefit crops ahead of the much warmer and drier conditions expected in late July.

Moore presented his weather outlook for agriculture during MSU Extension’s virtual crop breakfast this week.