Midwest Weekly Highlights - May 25-31, 2013

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Rain or Bust

Rain was widespread through the western portion of the region, with greatest totals in Iowa, northern Missouri, and western Illinois (Figure 1). Those same areas, as a result, received anywhere from 3 to 9 times normal precipitation, while the rest of the region primarily saw near normal or below normal totals (Figure 2). The vast majority of the region experienced at least some rainfall, while southern and southeastern Kentucky was the only area the received no rain on the week.

While drought is not of concern so far this season with the wet and cool start, drought was just beginning to gear up this time last year (Figure 3). This time last year approximately 40% of the region was experiencing at least abnormally dry (D0) conditions, where as this year only about 10% of the region is at least abnormally dry.

 

Mixed Bag of Temperatures

Much like last week, a fair chunk of the region experienced above average temperatures, though the extent and magnitude did not match that of last week (Figure 4). The areas of above normal temperatures primarily occurred on the edges of the region, while the interior portions, such as Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and southern Minnesota experienced near-average and below-average temperatures. Through out the region temperatures ranged from 4°F below-average (southern Minnesota) to 6°F above-average (northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northern Michigan), resulting in one of the more uniform and tame weeks of late for the region.

 

Severe Weather Continues Across the Region

The end of May continued what mid-May started, widespread severe weather through the region (Figure 5). Severe weather was seen in the region each day this week, with the majority occurring toward the end of the week on the 30th and 31st as a system slowly worked its way across the Plains and Midwest. Tornadoes were reported Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, while Minnesota and Kentucky received only a few severe weather reports.

 

Field Work Progress Catching up in May

The cool and wet start to spring delayed corn planting through most of the region, putting farmers well behind the 5 year average. The end of May, however, was good to farmers in the region and allowed most of the states in the region to rapidly catch up (Figure 6). All states remained slightly behind the 5 year average with the exceptions of Illinois, which is right at average, and Ohio and Michigan, which are both ahead of the average.

Corn Planted % of Crop	Apr 28	May 5	May 12	May 19	May 26	May 26 5-Year Average
Illinois	1	7	17	74	89	89
Indiana	1	8	30	64	86	77
Iowa	2	8	15	71	85	98
Kentucky	24	42	39	56	74	86
Michigan	0	5	32	78	90	84
Minnesota	0	2	18	70	82	95
Missouri	15	22	28	70	83	88
Ohio	2	7	46	74	89	71
Wisconsin	0	4	14	43	64	85

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