Weather report: Cool air settles across the Corn Belt

In the West, warm weather prevails in advance of a Pacific storm. However, cooler air is arriving along the Pacific Coast, while showers are starting to overspread the northern California.

On the Plains, scattered showers and thunderstorms continue to provide drought relief across southern portions of the region. However, significant precipitation continues to bypass the southern High Plains, where rangeland, pastures, and winter grains have not recovered from last year’s historic drought.

In the Corn Belt, cool air continues to settle across the region, accompanied by gusty winds. This morning’s freezes were mainly confined to the upper Midwest, where little winter wheat is grown and only a small amount of corn has been planted.

In the South, crop development and most planting operations continue to advance at a faster-than-normal pace, despite a turn toward cooler weather. However, rain is badly needed in the lower Southeast to prevent increasing stress on pastures, winter grains, and emerging summer crops.

Outlook: During the next several days, a pair of storms will produce widespread precipitation. Amounts could reach 1 to 3 inches in California and from the Plains into the upper Midwest. In contrast, mostly dry weather will prevail through week’s end in the Southeast. Elsewhere, cool conditions will peak around mid-week across the Midwest and Northeast. On April 11-12, both regions can expect widespread freezes, with some readings below 32°F possible into northern sections of the Southeast. Freezes may linger late into the week across the Northeast. Elsewhere, the West will experience a rapid cooling trend, while warmth will briefly shift into the nation’s mid-section. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for April 15-19 calls for above-normal temperatures in the East and parts of the West, while cooler-than-normal conditions will prevail in a swath across the nation’s mid-section. Meanwhile, near- to below-normal precipitation across the majority of the U.S. will contrast with wetter-than-normal weather from the Gulf Coast northward into the eastern Corn Belt.

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