Another wet spring?

Spring 2020 won’t be like spring 2019 from a weather standpoint. That’s the belief of Eric Snodgrass of Nutrien Ag Solutions who gave a weather outlook at this week’s All Day Ag Outlook Meeting from Illinois Public Media.

Snodgrass does not expect a brutally cold spring but the northern plains could have some issues. It may not be the news many want to hear, but the atmosphere is expected to open up again next week and give us more rainfall around here.

“We didn’t have much of a winter,” Snodgrass said.

There was no polar vortex disruption compared to a year ago as all of the cold air is trapped up in the Arctic.

“Any cold air that comes in will be relatively short in duration and will not be deep as far as magnitude.”

This winter has been unique. For instance, 75 percent of the days since the start of the year have seen above normal temperatures in Illinois. Several prevent plant acres could be coming to the Dakotas this year as last season’s crops are still standing with snow cover on the ground.

“The cold air came in very quickly,” Snodgrass noted.

According to Snodgrass, the atmosphere has gotten its super active pattern out of its system early. Also, the frequency of two-inch rainfall events in a 24 hour period has doubled for Illinois and Indiana.

“We are more than likely to see wetter and wetter conditions moving forward,” Snodgrass explained.

If the northern Pacific continues to cool, we could see plenty of heat over the summer. This is also something to watch very closely.

In South America, precipitation is not expected to slow down in Brazil which is putting them behind compared to a year ago. This could result in a spring rally for farmers here in the U.S. especially if South American farmers can’t get their second corn crop in.

“We just need to keep an eye on South American weather.”