Weather Report 04 April 2018
South Africa - Weather Alternating periods of rain and sunshine will evolve across South Africa during the coming week. Moisture totals through next Tuesday morning will range from 0.40 to 2.00 inches with several areas from eastern Northern Cape and western North West through Free State and Natal that receive more than 3.00 inches of rain. Portions of Limpopo and Western Cape will also receive less than 0.40 inch of rain as well. A frequent rain pattern will evolve for central and eastern South Africa April 11 17 while the western production areas generally receive little to no precipitation. The periods of rain will continue to slow maturation and harvesting at times in central and eastern South Africa during the next two weeks. Most areas will not receive enough rain to negatively impact crop quality, though drier weather would be welcome in most locations. Rain in western crop areas might improve peanut and cotton conditions for a little while.
United States of America - Weather U.S. MIDWEST: The Midwest will see another ten days to two-weeks of poor conditions for planting. Regular rounds of precipitation will keep the soil too wet for fieldwork while unseasonably cold temperatures through Saturday and colder than usual conditions through early next week will keep evaporation rates low during the breaks between precipitation events. Some warming will occur near the middle of next week, but with additional precipitation expected April 11-15 fieldwork should be sluggish until a sustained period of warm and dry weather evolves. U.S. DELTA AND SOUTHEAST: Some planting should occur in the Southeast where rain was not heavy last week, but cool temperatures Wednesday through Saturday will limit evaporation rates during the short breaks between rounds of rain and aggressive fieldwork is not likely. After that, an improving trend for fieldwork will occur as rain will be more limited and temperatures will warm Sunday through April 16 in the Delta and April 10-17 in the Southeast. Totally dry conditions are not expected, but dry days will be more common than rainy days and planting should accelerate.
South America - Weather BRAZIL: Areas from Mato Grosso to southern Minas Gerais will see daily rounds of showers and thunderstorms through Monday. Fieldwork will be slowed by the rain while second season corn benefits from the moisture. Little rain of significance will fall outside of areas surrounding the region mentioned above. After that western Brazil will be favored for the greatest rain and corn in Mato Grosso do Sul will benefit from the rainfall with portions of central Brazil benefitting from rain April 12-14. ARGENTINA: Much of Argentina was dry Monday with an exception near central parts of the Santa Fe and Corrientes border where 1.14 inches of rain was reported. High temperatures were in the 70s and lower 80s Fahrenheit with a few middle 80s in the north and upper 60s in a few central and southeastern areas. Argentina will see a few rounds of rain during the next ten days that will cause some interruptions to harvesting, but good harvest progress should be made during the breaks around the rain events. Some exceptions will occur as heavy rain will impact parts of southern and eastern Argentina Sunday into Tuesday of next week and multiple days of drying will be needed before fieldwork can resume. A few immature crops should benefit from the moisture, but most crops are too far advanced to see improvements in yields.
Europe, New Zealand and Australia - Weather EUROPE: Regular rounds of precipitation will impact the European Continent during the next week to ten days. The moisture will maintain favorable soil moisture conditions throughout the continent, although a few locations in the west may become too wet and some local flooding will be possible. Precipitation will be greatest in the west and north early this week, shift into central locations during the middle of the week and eastern locations late this week into the weekend. Some moisture will return to the west late this week into the weekend. AUSTRALIA: Mostly dry weather occurred over interior eastern Australia Monday into early this morning promoting favorable conditions for crop maturation and harvest of summer crops. Scattered showers were confined to the coast with some locally heavy rain along the central coast of Queensland. Above normal temperatures and restricted precipitation will continue to promote favorable conditions for crop maturation and harvest of summer crops this week. However, an increase in rain is needed for winter crop planting to begin to pick up later this month into May, especially from South Australia into New South Wales.