Weekly Weather and Crop Update
A sure sign of spring is the first Weekly Weather and Crop Update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. It was a tough winter with a lot of snow and cold temperatures. It was the snowiest February on record with 30.8 inches of snow. The entire winter saw 71.6 inches of snow which was 20 more inches than normal. We average four snow events during the winter of more than 4-inches. This winter we had 10 events. Before this winter the record was 8 snow events of more than 4-inches!
After all the snow this winter a warm dry spring would have been nice but that is not exactly what we have gotten so far. Temperatures last week were 2.4 degrees warmer than normal at 51.3 degrees. However, soil temperatures at the 2-inch depth averaged 49 degrees which was 2 degrees below normal. Very little field work or fertilizer has been done so far. Most farmers need another day or two of warm dry weather to get in the field. Lets hope the rain that is in the forecast is very light!