Northern Plains Drought to Continue.
Grassland — check.
The driest April-through-June since 2006 in South Dakota — and the driest April-June period ever in some other portions of the Northern Plains — has taken its toll.
“The way it’s starting to look now, it’s not even going to make it for silage.” Buelow, along with South Dakota State Climatologist Laura Edwards, have some stark details about dryness that has become historic.
Edwards noted that, in South Dakota, June was the eighth-driest month on record.
And, South Dakota averages around an inch of rain per week in June, so it doesn’t take much to fall behind.” Edwards shares the concern about potential harm to corn with continued drought.
The weather forecast for the next two weeks is mainly hot and dry for the Northern Plains.
Crop losses, though, are a different matter.
Is there the potential for the Northern Plains drought to last into another year and become an event similar to multi-year droughts already experienced this decade in Texas and California?
“Some would argue that we might actually be in the second year of drought,” she said, referring to how drought was noted in portions of South Dakota a year ago.