Planting Forecast- Wetter, More Active Pattern This Weekend

Our dry weather potential seems to have one foot out the door as we move into a wetter, more active pattern this weekend into next week. For Saturday we see sun followed by clouds, but northern areas end up with more sun than areas south. South of I-74 we expect showers to develop as the day wears on Rain totals will be a few hundredths to .25” but there will be moisture around. From there, the showers spread across the rest of the state for Sunday and the first half of Monday. On Sunday, we expect rains of a few hundredths to .7” with 90% coverage. For Monday morning and midday, we can see an additional few hundredths to .25”, but the moisture will be ending through the morning. We turnout partly sunny Monday afternoon.

Tuesday and Wednesday are still dry for next week. Sunshine is expected to dominate, with a return to good drying conditions. The problem will be that we only end up with 2.5 days’ worth of good, dry weather, before rain threats reemerge.

Showers develop overnight next Wednesday night and continue into Thursday. We are raising rain totals for Thursday and coverage as well. Rain totals can be from .25”-.75” with coverage at 70%. However, then we do get a faster dry down, with some sunshine all day Friday.

We finish our 10-day window with dry weather for Saturday the 15^th and Sunday the 16^th.

Extended Period:

For the extended 11-16 day period there is not a lot of good agreement between models and various data sources. One model still is trying to put rain in the forecast pretty much every day of that extended period, and other looking for perhaps 1 front for the entire timeframe. Right now, we are leaning toward a drier look with a threat of precipitation closer to the start of the extended period, and then dry from Tuesday night (18^th) through Friday morning. Scattered showers likely return late afternoon and evening on the 21^st.

Weeks 3 & 4:

Scattered showers around most of the coming week 3 and week 4 period. We have concern that there may not be big windows to plant in the far extended period.

Week 3

Precipitation, week ending June 23 (green: above normal, brown: below)

Week 4

Precipitation, Week ending June 30 (green: above normal, brown: below)