Indiana farmers can take advantage of a mostly dry weekend and early week harvest window before a more potent weather system brings widespread rain and a significant pause to fieldwork by midweek.
Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin delivered his latest harvest weather forecast, presented by Beacon Credit Union, noting that while high pressure dominates most of the region, he is monitoring a weak disturbance clipping the northwestern corner of the state on Saturday.
Martin expects the primary precipitation from Saturday’s weak system to remain off to the west, though far Northwest Indiana could see brief interruptions.
“I feel the largest amount of precipitation holds in Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, but I also do not want to rule out some scattered shower and even thunderstorm action in far northwest Indiana,” Martin says. “Over the past couple of batches of data, we’ve seen the extent of this moisture kind of fall off. Definitely some clouds around on Saturday in northern Indiana, nothing down central and south, and I think rain is going to be somewhat limited. If you miss out on the rain on Saturday, you are dry all the way through Monday.”
Fieldwork windows will tighten quickly starting Tuesday as a stronger, multi-day storm system pushes across the Eastern Corn Belt.
“Showers and storms start to work in with a frontal boundary on Tuesday, we continue to see another round of moisture Wednesday, lingering action Thursday, and even in far east and southeastern parts of the state Friday morning,” Martin explains. “Combined, I think we’re looking at half to one and a half inches across a large part of the state, and I won’t rule out some heavier totals farther to the south and southwest. We’ll have to see how it comes together, but there is going to be a significant pause in harvestability through a large part of next week.”
As the rain system pulls away heading into next weekend, it will drag a shot of colder air across Indiana. However, Martin projects that the chill will be relatively short-lived as temperatures moderate heading into the week of the ninth.
“Cold air starts to dig down in for the finish of next week, and it holds through the weekend,” Martin says. “Then for the week of the ninth, temperatures moderate again, and honestly, even with the cold surge behind this front, we are still normal to above normal. Through the week of the ninth, I look for us to be warmer and dry again, should see good evaporation and a move back to the fields. How soon you get back really comes down to how much moisture you see in the Tuesday through Friday timeframe.”
Growers can hear Ryan Martin’s full Indiana Farm Forecast each weekday morning on the Hoosier Ag Today podcast.
