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Following an abnormally cool August, some crops have been struggling to grow as harvest time approaches.
“The dry, warm weather of late has helped to speed up the maturity of corn, soybeans and other crops in the Midwest and Plains,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls.
“The rain is coming at a perfect time for many crops, especially winter wheat,” said Nicholls.
Rounds of steady rain and soaking storms will stretch from West Texas to Minnesota and southwest Ontario through Sunday.
“In areas of the northern High Plains that were not decimated by drought this summer, the rainfall may salvage some of the corn crop,” he said.
While the dry ground is expected to soak up much of the water, localized flash flooding will be a threat through the end of the weekend.
Motorists should be careful to avoid flooded roadways and to obey all road closure signs.

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With the warm central United States in various degrees of drought as the summer comes to a close, wet weather this weekend may compensate – or even overcompensate – for missed rainfall.
Following an abnormally cool August, some crops have been struggling to grow as harvest time approaches.
“The dry, warm weather of late has helped to speed up the maturity of corn, soybeans and other crops in the Midwest and Plains,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls.
“The rain is coming at a perfect time for many crops, especially winter wheat,” said Nicholls.
“In areas of the northern High Plains that were not decimated by drought this summer, the rainfall may salvage some of the corn crop,” he said.
While the dry ground is expected to soak up much of the water, localized flash flooding will be a threat through the end of the weekend.
Low-lying and poor drainage areas, especially in more urban areas, are more prone to minor flooding in this type of weather pattern.
Motorists should be careful to avoid flooded roadways and to obey all road closure signs.

Michigan weather today: Beautiful Friday but drought area is growing.
A new weather buoy gathering a trove of information about Lake Superior’s wave action is meant to give researchers lots of data to work with, all the while helping to keep anglers and mariners safer on the water.
The hope is the weather buoy will not only collect data for scientists who study the Great Lakes, but that it will give fishermen and mariners more accurate weather information before they make the long trip out into Lake Superior.
The shallow reef topped by the lighthouse sits 45 miles due north of Marquette in the Upper Peninsula.
Before it was marked by a 98-foot-tall lighthouse, Stannard Rock was known as "one of the most treacherous reefs in the entire Great Lakes," according to Lake Superior Magazine.
The new weather buoy now sits about a mile away.
"Weather data has been collected at the top of the lighthouse for many years, but this is the first time that mariners will be able to see exactly what the waves are doing out there as well," said John Lenters, a senior scientist at Lentic Environmental Services, and contractor for Superior Watershed Partnership.
"We also anticipate that the information will be helpful for the Coast Guard, the Great Lakes Evaporation Network, and the National Weather Service," said Lenters, "particularly in improving wave models and forecasts that are currently being generated for the Great Lakes."
The Stannard Rock keepers would also use the radiotelephone to check on weather conditions before they began the multi-hour trip to or from the station."
At 6:30 p.m., their boat struck a bar forty miles from Marquette and sprang a leak.

2017 South America spring forecast: Drought to persist in eastern Brazil; Frequent storms to pose flood risk to Chile, Argentina.
Dry weather will be the theme for much of eastern and northern South America this spring, which will raise drought concerns as the season progresses.
Meanwhile, frequent storms will bring the threat for flooding farther south in parts of Chile and Argentina.
Drought to worsen across eastern Brazil The threat for drought will loom for Brazil in the coming months as dry conditions dominate the weather pattern.
While drought concerns grow across much of Brazil, other parts of the country will see more frequent rain.
“Areas farther south in Brazil, and into Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina have had adequate rains during the winter and we expect near- to slightly above-normal rainfall in these area for the spring as a whole,” Nicholls said.
There is some concern that the rain may become less frequent by November in this area; however, it is unlikely that drought will begin to set in.
Dry pattern to raise drought concerns from Colombia to French Guiana Winter rains have helped to ease drought conditions across northern areas of South America; however, dry conditions are poised to return in the coming months.
Rounds of rain to bring flood threat to Chile, Argentina While many areas of South America cope with drier-than-normal conditions during the spring months, wet weather will be more common in southern regions of the continent.
“Frequent storms are likely across southern Chile into southern Argentina during September into October with the risk of flooding in these areas,” Nicholls said.

The arrival of autumn will bring significant changes to the weather across much of Europe.
Following a hot and dry summer, beneficial rain will fall across parts of Italy and the Balkans, bringing relief from drought and wildfires.
“The change to drier weather will not last throughout the season, as a several week stretch of wet weather returns to eastern France, Germany and western Poland in October,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys said.
“There will be a significant increase in the risk of windstorms across the British Isles from late October into November,” Roys said.
“Northern Ireland and Scotland will face the greatest risk for significant impacts.” At least one post-tropical system is predicted to impact the Isles during this time, presenting a high risk for flooding and damaging winds.
Beneficial rain to arrive across Italy and Balkan Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula will continue to endure drought conditions; however, relief will arrive for Italy and the Balkans following a hot and dry September.
The drought conditions currently plaguing parts of Italy and the Balkans will continue into early autumn as above-normal temperatures and minimal rainfall are expected.
“Drought relief will come in October and November as rainfall increases across both Italy and the Balkans,” Roys said.
Warmth to prevail across eastern Europe into October before biting cold shots invade late A warm start to autumn is expected from the Baltic states into Ukraine.
This cold air will also bring the risk for a late-season snowstorm in Ukraine and Belarus.

Little to no rain has fallen in North Dakota, the biggest grower of spring wheat in the U.S., in the past two weeks, according to the National Weather Service.
The persistent hot, dry weather has farmers, analysts, and traders worried about yields and production for wheat, corn, and soybeans in the region.
Steve Halverson, who grows both wheat and corn near Kennebec, South Dakota, said his corn is a foot tall – well shorter than normal – and has essentially stopped growing due to lack of precipitation.
It’s still green for now, but if we don’t get moisture soon, it’s going to die.” Spring wheat in North Dakota was rated 41% good or excellent, while only 11% of the crop in South Dakota earned top ratings, according to the Department of Agriculture.
About two thirds of the state is suffering from drought conditions, and the rest is abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
What’s worse, Hyde said, is there’s no widespread rainfall forecast for the Northern Plains for at least the next two weeks.
MDA’s forecast shows 30% to 60% of normal rainfall in North Dakota in the 15 days through July 19 with only one small pocket in the south-central part of the state at normal levels.
The best chance for widespread precipitation is this week, but that’s in the extreme eastern part of the state, he said.
Halverson said he doesn’t grow soybeans on his farm, but many of his neighbors do.
“We haven’t had measurable precipitation in so long, and hot temperatures are taking a toll on the crops.

After 2016 drought, Tennessee’s flush with water.
Last year was, well, last year.
It was Eisentrout’s way of explaining how East Tennessee is 3.65 inches of rain above normal year-to-date after being an inch below normal and well on its way to a historic drought at this time last year.
The 2016 drought Today there are virtually no counties in Tennessee experiencing drought; last year at this time drought covered nearly all of Middle Tennessee and all of East Tennessee.
A dry April and May there had put Davidson County at 18.9 inches last year at this time.
The drought there came later in the year.
Those few inches of rain can make all of the difference.
"Last year we were looking at a severe drought by late fall, and this year we are looking at a much better situation."
“They have seen a great yield (of hay for their cattle).
“Water and excess humidity are the epicenter for fungal organisms.” Denton said tomatoes – the big crop in Grainger County – are especially prone to problems with fungus in the type of weather conditions East Tennessee is experiencing.

Unfortunately, little or no rain fell on most of the northern third of the High Plains and southern Plains, drying out conditions in Texas and Oklahoma and worsening the flash drought in eastern Montana and the western Dakotas.
In the Southwest, although June is climatologically dry and warm, extreme heat late in the period, subnormal precipitation during the past 60-days, and some impacts was enough to expand D0 in Utah, central Arizona, and southern New Mexico.
On Hawaii’s Big Island, some deterioration was made as field reports indicated worse conditions than expected while scattered showers in southwestern Alaska were not enough to improve low stream flow levels, thus D0 and D1 was slightly expanded there.
Northeast Scattered showers and thunderstorms (1-3 inches) associated with a cold front finally fell on the last day of the period after a relatively dry and warm June 13-18.
In northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama, moderate to heavy (2-3 inches) rains along the southern edges of the D0-D1 area were enough to trim away some of the drought and dryness; however, northern sections recorded under an inch, and D0 slightly expanded into extreme southern Tennessee with 60-day deficiencies of 2-4 inches.
Some areas in the South did see moderate to heavy (1.5-4 inches) rains (eastern sections of Kansas and Oklahoma, northeastern Texas, southern and central Mississippi, and west-central Tennessee), and this resulted in some D0 removal in southeastern Kansas, northeastern and southeastern Oklahoma, and northeastern Texas.
Moderate to heavy rains (1.5-3 inches) also fell on northern Minnesota (see High Plains), improving some of the D0-D1 by 1-category as April 1-June 20 precipitation was close to or above normal in all but the northwestern section.
High Plains While significant rains (1.5-3 inches) fell across northern and eastern North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota, and northern Minnesota (see Midwest) and provided some relief, little or no rain worsened conditions across eastern Montana, western and southern North Dakota, and the western half of South Dakota.
With May-July normally the wettest time of the year in the northern High Plains (some areas typically receive half to two-thirds of their ANNUAL precipitation), a lack of adequate late spring and early summer rainfall can impact the region for the rest of the year.
Similar to northeastern Montana, southwestern North Dakota and northern South Dakota have seen the lowest precipitation as compared to normal since April, with deficits of 3-6 inches at 60-days and 4-8 inches at 6-months.

Although recent rains have mitigated the drought conditions that have been prevalent on the north central and western sections of the state, the outlook is for drought conditions to persist in those areas.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, about 80 percent of South Dakota is considered to be abnormally dry or drier.
And about 13 percent of the state is experiencing a severe drought.
The rains of the last few weeks have brought relief to some parts of the eastern half of the state.
“According to data, most of eastern South Dakota received about 2 inches of rain.
But the additional rainfall in the north-central and western sections won’t be enough to prevent the drying out of those areas, especially if there are higher than normal winds.
“Drought conditions are severe.
Along with the prevailing northwesterly flow of air aloft, Clabo sees windier conditions and more dry cold fronts, neither of which will bring much rain.
Along with the drier and windier conditions will come increasing fire dangers, said Clabo.
That year, the continuing drought that began two years previously brought extreme fire danger indices and several major wildfires to the Black Hills area.

UN: Early Weather Forecasts Key to Saving Lives in Drought.
With droughts set to become more frequent due to global warming, delivering timely, long-term weather forecasts to farmers in the developing world will be key to limiting damage and saving lives, the head of the U.N. food agency said on Monday.
Droughts have killed more than 11 million people worldwide since 1900 and now affect double the land area than in 1970, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Developing countries are the most exposed, with their agricultural sectors shouldering 80 percent of all damage caused by drought, FAO says.
Better access to reliable weather data and early warning systems could help farmers in rural areas get ready to endure long spells of no rain, said FAO director-general Jose Graziano da Silva.
"Most of the times poor rural communities in developing countries don’t even know that a drought is about to strike," he told a conference at the FAO headquarters in Rome.
"People die because they are not prepared to face the impacts of the drought – because their livelihoods are not resilient enough," he said.
In Rome, FAO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) signed an accord to increase cooperation in the face of climate change, improving agro-meteorological services to help small farmers prepare for droughts.
WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said weather forecast accuracy had greatly increased in recent years thanks developments in satellite, computing and scientific research.
The last El Nino, a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific that typically occurs every few years, subsided in 2016 and was linked to crop damage, fires and flash floods.