• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Agriculture / January fog could be a sign of a wet planting season

January fog could be a sign of a wet planting season

February 8, 2017 By Radio Iowa Contributor

Elwynn Taylor

The foggy days we saw in January could be an indication of the type of weather farmers face this spring. Iowa State University Extension Climatologist Elwynn Taylor says it may be folklore, but there is some reasonable evidence to think it will be a wet one.

“The folklore message is ‘if you have fog in January, you are going to have a wet planting season.’ Or some people say, 90 or 100 days later it’s going to be awfully wet,” Taylor says. “There is some fact behind that because — why would the fog come in — we’ve started to get the flow from the Gulf of Mexico, which is what brings us our moisture.” He says this year fits the pattern that can give us a wet spring.

“It doesn’t mean we always will, but that was the first point we looked at. Be ready for it to be on the wet side of usual at planting time,” he says. While a wet spring is a possibility, Taylor says another better than average yield is also a possibility.

“That is a distinct possibility — now of course everyone who has farmed in the midwest knows for many years knows that it’s rare to go more than two or three years with above trend-line yield,” Taylor says. “This would be the fourth year. But it does happen. IN fact, five isn’t an unheard of number of years for staying above trend before it dips back below.” Taylor made his comments during a stop in Le Mars.

(Reporting by Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Agriculture, News, Weather

Featured Stories

Governor hails passage of ‘transformational’ state government reorganization

Economic impact of Iowa casinos tops one billion dollars

State board approves millions in settlement with former Hawkeye football players

Monroe County man dies while serving prison term for killing brother

Bill would make changes in Iowa’s workplace drug testing law

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa’s Clark wins Naismith Trophy

Traveling to Texas to watch the Hawkeyes in the Final Four will cost you

Iowa women are headed to the Final Four

Ogundele and Ulis are leaving the Iowa basketball program

Iowa plays Auburn in NCAA Tournament

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC