Monday’s sunny dry weather took a big turn Tuesday, and forecaster Rod Donavon at the National Weather Service says we’re in the grip of stormy forces. On Monday a strong storm system developed over the eastern Rockies on Monday, and Donavon says it’s drawn a lot of moisture up into the Plains. With warm front just to the south in northern Missouri, a lot of thunderstorms have happened across the boundary, producing heavy rain.
While the crops need rain every now and then, the forecaster says right now it’s a bad thing. "We’re pretty saturated from the late snowmelt this year," Donavon says, "and with this heavy rain we could see significant rises on local streams and rivers." Despite the reports that this could be the largest corn-planting year in history, farmers are behind schedule getting the crop into the ground.
The meteorologist says they won’t catch up this week. With farmers already backed up because of recent wet weather, this definitely isn’t going to help at all, Donavon says. "If this continues, they won’t get into the fields until at least the first portion of May."