Scattered Midwest Rains Having Little Effect; Corn, Soybean Crops Deteriorating Rapidly

[hatrack]

Scattered rains over the last 24 hours provided little relief for U.S. Midwest corn and soybean crops that are rapidly deteriorating in the worst drought since 1988, and the forecast is for scant rain for the next two weeks, meteorologists said on Saturday.

"Overall the rain yesterday won't put a dent in the drought because they were spotty hit or miss kind of rains. Certainly some isolated areas will benefit, but it was not a significant drought buster," said AccuWeather meteorologist Dan Pydynowski.

Thunderstorms on Friday left from 0.25 inch to 0.50 inch of rain in portions of eastern Iowa and northern Illinois, including Chicago, with isolated amounts up to one inch, meteorologists said. There were similar showers of "0.25 inch or so" in portions of parched southern Indiana and southern Illinois, Pydynowski said.

EDIT

Drought and heat led the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday to slash its U.S. corn production forecast to 12.970 billion bushels, down from its previous outlook for 14.790 billion. USDA on Monday dropped its estimate for U.S. corn good-to-excellent condition rating to 40 percent from the previous 48 percent. Traders expect USDA to show a similar decline in updated weekly crop progress data this Monday, including a decline in soybean conditions.

EDIT

http://news.yahoo.com/u-crops-wilting-despite-scattered-midwest-rains-172854645.html?_esi=1

[Atman]

1. Too bad we didn't bet our energy futures in corn-based Ethanol

Remember when everyone said it would the savior, and ween us off Mid East oil? Where are those people now?

[longship]

2. Very dry here in West MI. nt

.

[MuseRider]

3. Dry 6 feet down.

Sadly I had to bury a horse the day before yesterday. The guy with the backhoe was apologetic that it took him about 30 minutes longer than usual to dig the grave. On one of the wetter areas of my pastures he dug down 6 feet and it was all dusty, dry clay. Completely dry at 6 feet. This is after only 2 years of dryness. Dryness and extreme heat.

[hatrack]

4. And another week of flirting with or passing 100F forecast in today's paper . . .

Good times!

Not.

[MuseRider]

6. It is miserable.

I saw 99, 98, 100, 100, 100 etc. degree days I think for this week. When cars drive down my road the dust goes up and stays there forever if there is no wind. The sky is brownish blue, not the normally deep and clear blue. You can trip walking through my pastures because your foot falls down in a crack. The wildflowers are brown and crispy and my pastures crackle when you walk through them and have since June. Good old Kansas Sunflowers are about 2 feet tall and have flowers about an inch in diameter, those that have not died already. It is scary scary here. IIRC you are somewhat close to here, probably the same stuff where you are.

[xchrom]

5. Du rec. Nt

[madokie]

7. Its dryer than a popcorn fart here in NE OK

A little shower came through this afternoon and dropped maybe a 16th inch of rain but it didn't really settle the dust. Under our shade tree it didn't even get the back deck wet. Only thing that is keeping my small garden alive is the rain they've been getting in the northern states that feeds the rivers that our water is drawn from, otherwise we'd not be allowed to water the garden.