With all the planting delays across the Corn Belt due to excessive moisture during the planting season, producers may want to consider paying close attention to disease issues that develop under high relative humidity levels.
If we were to sum up May in three words, they would be “wet,” “cool,” and “stormy.” An active weather pattern kept things interesting around Nebraska thanks to a jet stream pattern with a trough in the west and a ridge in the east. Enough moisture was in atmosphere so that systems moving across the state brought plenty of rainfall, some of that coming in heavy doses and most of that falling on already saturated soils. Temperatures were cool enough in the Panhandle that some locations received snow — and impressive amounts. Tornado, hail and wind storm reports were plentiful and even the monthly tornado total is more than half of the typical seasonal total. Flooding continues to be widespread around Nebraska with a continuation of above-normal rains. Interstate 29 was opened for a time in May but closed again in early June due to flooding.
After another week of heavy precipitation across a substantial portion of the Corn Belt, planting delay and replant issues continue to plague producers, especially across the eastern Corn Belt, Al Dutcher, associate state climatologist, writes for the latest edition of CropWatch. There are signs, however, that a considerably drier forecast may be unfolding as the calendar turns to June.
After a wild ride in March, April brought some interesting extremes to Nebraska this year, which is not uncommon for spring weather conditions. Some areas received a foot of snow — in one day — near mid-month. Record high daily temperatures occurred during the third week. This was followed by temperatures plunging at month’s end with more snow for portions of the state. Clean-up, recovery and damage assessments continue across portions of Nebraska affected by the flood. Massive amounts of sand deposited on crop fields remains a significant issue in some low-lying areas. Portions of Interstate 29 along Nebraska’s eastern border remained closed through April.
Winter brought terrible cold and too much moisture to many parts of the state, leading to simultaneous catastrophic weather events in the west, northcentral and northeast parts of the state. In addition to towns and farmland crushed by flooding, cattle losses due to extreme cold, snow and flooding are estimated at $400 million in losses, according to national media reports. In addition to providing context for the events leading up to those events, we provided localized climate data to the Nebraska Farm Service Agency in York to assist in their response to emergency aid requests.
Historic and large-scale flooding ravaged Nebraska this March. It wasn’t only a result of the “bomb” cyclone causing blizzard conditions in the west and heavy rain in the east. It was the combination and timing of events leading up to the massive storm that set the stage for damaging floods.
Before the storm, the weather was quite cold, coming in as the ninth lowest average February temperature on record ― more than 9 degrees lower than normal. Precipitation, particularly for eastern Nebraska, was quite high with two to four times the normal amount going back to December. Snow had been plentiful, and the landscape was blanketed with an appreciable snowpack. Rivers were frozen and beneath the snow cover, the soils were frozen and saturated. Any snowmelt or rain would have nowhere to go but downstream.
The Nebraska Climate Summit brought together leading experts in climate, health, agriculture, public policy and planning, and put them in a room March 21 at Nebraska Innovation Campus. That room was full of their key stakeholders — Nebraskans.
The Nebraska Climate Summit, a conversation between Nebraskans and university experts about climate change, will be live streamed here for those unable to make the event March 21 at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
Sessions to be aired include:
After two consecutive months of above-normal temperatures to start the winter season, an energetic northern jet developed over North America and led to an unusually cold February, even by Nebraska standards. There were four distinct periods during the month where average temperatures were at least 100F below normal.
The southeast corner of Nebraska hit the snow jackpot this season, after January continued the trend of substantial snowfall amounts across the state. A storm at mid-month resulted in impressive daily snowfall totals of more than 6 inches in certain locations. While the rest of the state received only a few inches of snow for the entire month, places like Nebraska City (20 inches), Tecumseh (18 inches), Syracuse (16.6 inches), Auburn (15.5 inches), the Lincoln area (14 inches) and Omaha Eppley Airfield (12.8 inches) saw copious amounts. For the season-to-date total (since Oct. 1), this portion of Nebraska has seen 2 to 3 feet of snow.
