Ag Weather Forum

Midwest Winter Precipitation

Bryce Anderson
By  Bryce Anderson , Ag Meteorologist Emeritus
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Precipitation Jan 1 through Friday Feb 8, as tallied by colleague Joel Burgio, shows a big discrepancy between the Eastern and Western Corn Belts. We have been saying for quite some time that the Eastern Corn Belt had a better chance of post-Drought 2012 recovery, and the first few weeks of 2013 are bearing that out.

Here are the totals--first for the Western Corn Belt:

State Avg Jan 1-Feb 8 Normal Pct of Normal

Minn .75 .97 76

Iowa 1.28 1.35 88

Nebr .33 .90 36

Mo 2.81 1.88 147

SDak .44 .71 63

Area 1.11 1.18 81

And here's the Eastern Corn Belt rundown:

State Avg Jan 1-Feb 8 Normal Pct of Normal

Wisc 3.07 1.54 199

Ill 3.92 2.19 184

Mich 4.58 2.34 195

Ind 4.83 3.01 160

Ohio 2.98 2.95 107

Ken 5.68 4.41 129

Area 4.26 2.78 161

It's also interesting to look at the sharp divide in Iowa and Minnesota from east to west on early-year precipitation totals. In Iowa, we see less than 30 percent of normal in the northern and northwestern stations of Sioux City, Spencer and Mason City; and above normal in Burlington, Ottumwa, Dubuque and Waterloo in the east and southeast. Des Moines was basically at normal. And in Minnesota, Alexandria, Redwood Falls and St. Cloud are all around 50 percent below normal, with near to above normal in central and southeastern Minnesota.

Bryce

Twitter @BAndersonDTN

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