The weather finally took a big turn toward warmer and drier conditions across the Buckeye State last week. Most locations throughout Ohio had daytime highs in the low to mid 80s on 5 or 6 days. This allowed soil temperatures rise about 15°F, ending the week in the mid to upper 60s. Though a cool down is underway early this week, air temperatures are expected to remain mild enough to keep soil temperatures averages in the 60s this week. This is the final soil temperature update for the season.
Along with the warm temperatures, dry conditions prevailed most of the week. Scattered, slow moving thunderstorms brought locally heavy rain to the region on Saturday. Fayette, Putnam, and Fulton County sites reported more than two inches. Another line of showers and storms moved across the state Sunday night into Monday morning, with most locations across Ohio picking up between 0.5-2” over the last 7 days (Fig. 2 -left).
Ohio Crop Progress Report (https://go.osu.edu/cropprogress) is the place for current updates on planting progress. Our earliest planting date corn was around 4/23/2022. These fields should be emerged regardless of you location in the state. Germination progress is soil temperature and moisture-related. The temperature relationship is reasonably predictable for corn, requiring 100 to 120 growing degree days (GDDs) to emerge. We refer you to a 2021 CORN for more on calendar vs. GDD for corn emergence at https://go.osu.edu/cornemergence. Table 1 below shows accumulated GDD at CFAES weather stations since April 23rd, when fieldwork broadly began across the state. 2-inch soil temperatures from the CFAES network are used to generate GDD. Based on the earliest planting dates we should be seeing corn emergence in the southern part of the state.
Table 1. GDD Accumulation at CFAES weather Stations based on 2-inch soil temperatures since April 23rd
CFAES Weather Station |
GDD 2-in Soil April 23 to May 15 |
Emergence of Corn Planted 4/23 (Yes or No) |
Corn emergence would be expected for planting dates before |
1-Ashtabula |
188 |
Yes |
5/8/2022 |
2-Northwest |
170 |
Yes |
5/8/2022 |
3-North Central |
173 |
Yes |
5/5/2022 |
4-Wooster |
160 |
Yes |
5/3/2022 |
5-Western |
256 |
Yes |
5/9/2022 |
6-Eastern |
252 |
Yes |
5/7/2022 |
7-Piketon |
276 |
Yes |
5/9/2022 |
For more complete weather records for CFAES research stations, including temperature, precipitation, growing degree days, and other useful weather observations, please visit https://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weather1/.