CHICAGO, March 15 (Reuters) -
Increased rainfall and some snow are expected by the weekend and again late
next week in the northern U.S. Midwest and southern portions of the region,
which will add valuable soil moisture ahead of spring seedings of corn and
soybeans, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday.
The extended drought last summer,
the worst in 50 years, slashed more than 25 percent of the projected bushels of
corn crop per acre, cutting supplies in the United States to the current
17-year low.
"From 4 to 8 inches of snow or
roughly 0.50 inch to 0.75 inch of moisture equivalent is expected in the
Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin," said Don Keeney, meteorologist for MDA
Weather Services. "It certainly will add soil moisture."
Keeney also said warmer weather this
week in the U.S. Plains hard red winter wheat region will be replaced by colder
weather next week.
"Much of the crop in the far
south broke dormancy this week," he said, "but I think with the
colder weather next week, there won't be much emergence (break from dormancy)
from central Kansas into Nebraska."
Winter snowfall and recent rains
have helped add soil moisture to the drought-stricken Plains wheat and
cattle-grazing region, but more rain is needed to bring soil moisture levels
back to normal, Keeney and others said.
Commodity Weather Group
meteorologist Joel Widenor said the weekend showers and snow would ease the
drought a bit in the northwestern Midwest, and showers over the next two weeks
would help in the Plains.
But "the southwestern Plains
will rely on recent improvements in topsoil moisture to support spring growth
of winter wheat," Widenor said.
"Early corn seeding in the
Delta and Southeast will slow occasionally due to showers and intermittent cool
weather over the next two weeks, but only minor interruptions are
anticipated," he said.
Drought continued to retreat in many
areas of the U.S. Plains as snow and rainfall replenished parched soils and
gave farmers and ranchers an improved outlook for better crop and livestock
conditions, according to a report issued on Thursday.
Eight U.S. states continued to
suffer from the worst level of drought, dubbed "exceptional" by the
Drought Monitor, a report issued by a consortium of state and federal
climatologists each week. But many saw improvement.
Keeney said that as of March 9,
about 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) of rain were needed in Kansas, the top
producer of hard red winter wheat, to bring the state out of drought status.
That was an improvement from early
February when about 4 inches to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) of rain was needed.
Up to 8 inches (20 cm) was needed in
a pocket of severe dryness in northeastern Kansas, a big corn- and grain
sorghum-growing area. Similar amounts were needed in nearly the eastern third
of Nebraska.
Northwest Iowa and south-central
Minnesota needed from 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) to get soils back to normal
moisture levels.
Near-normal soil moisture was seen
in most of Missouri and all of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
