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DROUGHT IN WEST FORECAST TO STRETCH INTO THE CORN BELT
May 23, 2022
Agri-Pulse reports:
There appears to be little hope for improvement anytime soon in the dry conditions that plague the Plains and West. The new U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook projects that the drought will spread across Iowa over the summer while expanding in South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.
The U.S. is seeing its third consecutive year of La Niña, a climate phenomenon fueled by cooling waters in the equatorial Pacific. "Protracted La Niña's tend to be accompanied and even followed by enhanced drought coverage, especially west of the Mississippi," said the author of the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, Brad Rippey.
"So it's consistent with climatological studies that we would see some eastward and northward expansion or intensification of drought."
This week's Drought Monitor shows that moderate to exceptional drought has expanded in Colorado and that extreme to exceptional drought has spread in Kansas. The southern Plains continues to bake, with temperatures soaring over 100 in places.
Why it matters: The U.S. winter wheat crop is already in trouble, and the ongoing drought doesn't bode well for getting the next crop in, either. At the same time, areas of the upper Midwest have been so wet that farmers are having trouble getting corn and spring wheat crops planted.
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