August 21-31, 2002: More Rain for the Wet, Little Rain for the Dry.

The week of August 21-27 brought widespread heavy rain to the Midwest. Combined with very heavy rains at the end of the previous period, most of the Midwest experienced improved soil moisture conditions. Unfortunately, this rain came too late for corn not properly fertilized in July, and for soybean plants with aborted pods. Still, for many locations, soybean plants were able to add pods and better fill pods in response to the rain, and corn kernel weights may be improved where corn has not matured. From 2.0 to 4.0+ inches of rain fell in the core of the Midwest in southern Minnesota, eastern Iowa, and northern Illinois (Figure 21), and most of the Midwest greatly exceeded normal rain for the period. Only northern Minnesota and southern Ohio received less than 50% of normal rain for the period (Figure 22). Temperatures were near normal in the northwestern half of the Midwest, while the Ohio Valley and Kentucky were 2-4°F above normal (Figure 23). Further improvements in drought status occurred in northern Illinois and Indiana, southwestern Michigan, northwestern Ohio, and in the far western Midwest near the Iowa/Missouri border (Figure 24, NDMC). The drought in the Ohio Valley/Kentucky areas intensified somewhat, as only south-central Kentucky received adequate rains in the past week. West central Missouri also experienced an increase in abnormally dry conditions, having missed most of the rain in the last two weeks. The last 4 days of the month, August 28-31, were dry in most of the Midwest, although 2-4 inches of rain fell on the evening of the 28^th in northern Minnesota (Figure 25). Temperatures were 4-8°F above normal throughout the region (Figure 26).