Weekly Weather and Crop Update

This week as I read the weekly weather and crop update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca I knew what the data would show. It was another cool week. Air temperatures averaged 62 degrees or 4.3 degrees below normal. Rainfall totaled .2 inches which was .68 inches below normal. Growing Degree Units accumulated last week were 24 percent less than normal at 89. The total since May 1st is  still only 2 percent below normal at 2181 Growing Degree Units.

Looking at the whole month of August it was the 12th coolest on record. Temperatures averaged 3.5 degrees below normal at 64.1 degrees. August was also very cloudy with our solar radiation 10 percent below normal. August seemed wet because rainfall was measured on 17 days but the monthly total was .85 inches below normal at 3.9 inches. However there is plenty of soil moisture to finish this crop. All we need is lots of warm sunshine!