Drought Conditions Improve as Corn Belt Sees Up to 10 Inches of Rain

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor shows improvements in drought conditions across areas of the Southeast, South, Midwest, Central and Northern Plains, Intermountain West, and Desert Southwest.

The map shows the most significant rainfall accumulations were observed across northern Kansas and areas of the Midwest, including Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, where accumulations ranged from 3 to over 10 inches.

Midwest

According to the Drought Monitor, storms during the past week delivered accumulations of 1–6 inches, with the heaviest amounts observed in isolated areas of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri. Improvements were made in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

“Heavy rain and thunderstorms have been present throughout the area all week,” said Phil Krieg, agronomy service representative for Syngenta Crop Protection in Illinois. “Rainfall totals have been anywhere from less than an inch up to 9 inches in some areas.”

On July 20, parts of Clinton and Fayette counties experienced heavy, hard rains, Krieg said, falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour or more.

“Flooding of fields in a creek or river bottom will take a lot of acres along the Kaskaskia River and various creeks along the way,” Krieg shared. “Even outside of bottom areas, there are now places that water is standing and the crop will die in a couple days.”

In Minnesota, Syngenta agronomist Tim Dahl said he is hoping for some calm days moving forward, so fungicide applications can be completed to protect the yield.

“The weather the week of July 14 started off pretty warm and ended with some rainfall late in the work week and moderating temps over the weekend,” Dahl said. 

Over in Wisconsin, Syngenta agronomist Nick Groth said he experienced warm and humid weather to start the week, followed by some severe storms, with several tornadoes reported throughout the state.

“The storms brought cooler weather that lasted through the weekend,” Groth said. “There were also a few other strong storms in north-central Wisconsin late last week. These storms brought significant hail to areas east of Wausau, resulting in some devastating crop damage in that area.”

High Plains

This week, improvements were made in the High Plains, namely in north-central Kansas, southeastern Nebraska, and South Dakota, where shorter-term precipitation was normal to above normal.

However, the map shows conditions degraded in areas of central South Dakota, as well as in northern North Dakota, where dry conditions have prevailed the past 30–60 days. For the week, light to heavy rainfall accumulations (1–10 inches) were observed, with the heaviest amounts impacting northern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska.