An early taste of summer in the second full week of April 2023, week ending April 15, across the Corn Belt likely got many farmers itching to get started with planting. Indeed, there were several reports of some planting activity across the Corn Belt in the second week of April as warm and dry weather led to favorable fieldwork conditions.
According to data from WeatherTrends360, this was the warmest and fifth driest second week of April in 30-plus years for the Corn Belt.
This warm and dry weather coincided with the earliest eligible corn and soybean planting dates for federal crop insurance programs in parts of the region. While soil temperatures were near or exceeded the germination threshold during the spell of summer-like weather, temperatures are expected to dip back below optimal levels in the third week of April.
Moving forward, the weather will not be as warm in the third week of April, week ending April 22. However, this will be the warmest third week of April in four years for the Corn Belt, according to forecasts from WeatherTrends360. Despite the blip of summer-like weather in the second week of April, the Corn Belt is still very much susceptible to frosts and freezes yet this season.
Precipitation for the Corn Belt as a whole will be near to slightly above normal in the third week of April 2023. A cold front will swing through early in the week bringing the risk of some wintry showers to the region. Temperatures warm up again by mid-week but another cold front swings through towards the end of the week, possibly bringing some snow to the northern Plains.
Speaking of the northern Plains, the recent spell of warm weather caused rapid snowmelt across the region where the snowpack ranged from several inches to several feet at the start of the week. A large portion of that snowpack melted by the end of the week and caused flooding and damage to some croplands.
While the northern Plains dealt with too much water, the dry conditions continued across the southwestern Plains, including the major hard red winter wheat-producing regions. The second week of April was one of the driest in 30-plus years for the region and those dry conditions are expected to largely continue into the third week of April. A large portion of the Texas Panhandle northward to Nebraska remain in stages of severe to extreme drought.
