The active weather pattern will continue. The week of July 11th will bring a very warm and humid week with rounds of showers and thunderstorms. Some storms may be severe at times with high winds and heavy rains. Maximum temperatures will be in the 80s to lower 90s this week with overnight lows in the 60s to lower 70s. Temperatures will average about 5 degrees above normal for the week. Relief from the very warm weather will occur this coming weekend again with lower humidity and temperatures returning to not far from normal, likely a few degrees below the normal highs which are generally in the 80s now. Rainfall will average 1-2 inches but again will be highly variable due to thunderstorms ranging form less than an inch to over 3 inches in places. Normal rainfall is near 1 inch for the week.
The week of July 17 will feature a pleasant start with a return of hot weather. Scattered storms will return as well as the week goes along. Overall, the week of July 17 will continue to support rapid growth of crops with the warm weather. With ample soil moisture in most areas, this will keep the heat in check with temperatures likely not getting too much above 90 which is not too far from ideal heat, just a bit high.
The week of July 24 will see a return to more normal temperatures with rainfall being above normal again. The switch to drier weather this summer just has not happened. We thought a switch would occur sometime in July but it looks more likely to occur in August now.
Drought this summer is confined to the far western corn belt of western Iowa and eastern Nebraska and it is a fairly small area. The main drought area is in South and North Dakota into Montana and is more focused on the wheat areas. Most of the corn and soybean areas are seeing fairly decent conditions this summer.
The 16-day rainfall forecast is for 2-4 inches across Ohio from south to north on average. Normal is 2 inches so no real dry concerns are seen the next few weeks. You can see the latest 16-day rainfall forecast from the NOAA Ohio River Forecast Center in the map below. Most of the corn and soybean belt at least an inch of rainfall except far western areas including Nebraska and eastern South Dakota the next two weeks.
NOAA/NWS/NCEP has a very sophisticated weather model that forecasts the radar for the next 12+ hours for very short term help to farmers and others:
You need to select loop all at the bottom. You also need to change the date to the current day as well. Check it out!