WASHINGTON — Corn harvest in the US continues to advance at a quick pace this season, reaching 26% completed by the start of October. This is compared to the 5-year average pace of 17% and last year’s pace of 16%. However, states further to the East such as Ohio and Pennsylvania are not quite as advanced in their harvest as their neighbors to the west. In fact, as of the start of the month, Pennsylvania was only at half of the 5-year harvest pace for corn. Both states have battled with wet weather over the last couple months, keeping crop development closer to normal, and harvest not nearly as advanced. Looking at September, rainfall in Ohio for the month ranked the 4th most and Pennsylvania the 2nd most in 27+ years. A wetter than normal October is in store for these states as well, which could result in a continuation of the slower harvest pace.
Over the next 7 days, severe thunderstorms are possible across the Central US as cold air from Canada pushes into the US and clashes with warm air to the south. Rainfall totals for the time period could total 2-5”, with locally higher amounts, from Texas to Wisconsin. Temperatures are trending well below normal already in the Upper Plains and Northern Rockies today (Thursday, 10/4) and will stick around through at least the weekend. Below normal temperatures will spread across the West and into the Central Plains by the end of the weekend as well. However, the cool temperatures aren’t expected to stick around the Central Plains long, being replaced by near to warmer than normal trends by next week. With cold temperatures in place, the Northern Rockies and parts of the Dakotas could receive snow over the weekend and next week. Current forecasts suggest a cold snap is also possible for the North Central and Eastern US sometime around mid-month.
Rains are also expected across portions of the West over these next 7 days, a welcomed change as many areas continue to deal with drought conditions. Remnants of once Hurricane Rosa brought rain to Arizona and the Great Basin earlier this week. Only part of the rain from Rosa fell in Arizona during the data-collection period for the current Drought Monitor, so the only improvements noted from the previous week were in Southwestern Arizona. However, in next week’s issue, further improvement to drought should be seen across the Southwest. Most other areas of the country remained largely unchanged in their drought this week.
In other US crop news, winter wheat planting is underway, reaching 43% planted as of this week. Of this, about 14% of the crop has already emerged. Soybean development and harvest are advancing at a slightly faster than normal pace this year with 83% of the crop dropping leaves and 23% harvested completed thus far. 67% of the US cotton crop has bolls opening, which is in line with the 5-year average, however harvest is about 6 points ahead of the 5-year average at 19% completed.
–Weather Trends 360