U.S. Plains Heat Wave To Stress Livestock, Crops
By Drew Lerner
Kansas City, June 7 (World Weather Inc.) – A heat wave will be evolving across most of the U.S. Great Plains during the last couple of days this week and it will last through the weekend and into early next week. The northern Plains should cool down early in the week next week while the central and southern Plains will stay hot through at least mid-week. Stress to livestock and crops will result. Temperatures in the Midwest will not be as hot as the Great Plains, but short-rooted crops throughout the central Midwest where planting and replanting of summer crops has been late due to wet fields will experience stress, as well.
A deep upper level trough of low pressure will push into the western United States and southern British Colombia late this week and during the weekend. In response, a strong ridge of high pressure will evolve across the Great Plains states pushing temperatures higher. The hottest weather is expected Friday through Monday from Texas to South Dakota where middle and upper 90s and lower 100-degree highs are expected daily. Extremes of 100 to 106 are expected in numerous locations across the region.
Livestock stress will result immediately, although windy conditions will evolve most of the hotter days preventing the worst kind of stress from evolving. Sustained wind speeds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts to more than 40 mph will occur at times. The heat and wind will result in quick drying conditions which may be good for some areas and not so good for others.
Many areas in hard red winter wheat production areas in the central Plains have been quite wet this spring. The heat and drying wind will be great in reducing moisture surpluses and will stop the expansion of wet weather disease while speeding crops toward maturation. Some of the most immature crops in the north part of the production region could experience some improved protein levels, but crops are too far advanced in the south for such a change. The dry conditions in the southern Plains will help get more of the wheat crop mature and promote some early harvesting.
From a summer crop perspective the heat will not be good for recently planted crops that have not developed good root systems. This could be a bigger problem in the Midwest than in the Plains because of late planting and replanting of corn, soybeans and sorghum due to wet field conditions and frequent rainfall.
Some leaf curl has already been reported from Illinois into Indiana in the past week because of some heat and moisture stress for those areas experiencing the fastest dry down. This situation will continue over the coming week even though high temperatures may not be warmer than middle 80s to middle 90s Fahrenheit. The late planted Midwestern crops have short root systems and the soil is drying rapidly causing stress to many plants.
Next week’s rainfall in the Midwest should help crops recover a bit from the stress. Slightly wetter soil will help root systems get enough moisture to resume their development downward in the soil where they can tap into abundant subsoil moisture for future development during drier and warmer days.
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