The main headline going forward the next 1-2 week across the corn and soybean belt as a whole is for improving conditions for planting across the region so expect to see increasing planting from west to east in the next 1-2 weeks.
Mother Nature has decided not to be so nice lately to us. As we talked last week we expected some frost May 15 and 16 and this is exactly what occurred. For the most part temperatures dropped to 31-36F Monday morning but it was mainly a frost event and no hard freeze as that requires temperatures below 28 for at least 3 hours and this appears to not have occurred. There was some lake effect snow mainly on grassy areas in far northeast Ohio as well.
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I can't rule out some patchy frost in far eastern Ohio and northeast Ohio the middle of this week with low temperatures 35-40 degrees but again no hard freezes are expected.
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Going into the last full week of May we should see more dry days than wet with temperatures shifting to 1-3F above normal as we forecast last week as well.The outlook through May 22 calls for temperatures below normal and rainfall normal to slightly below normal. The outlook from May 23 through May 31 calls for temperatures above normal and rainfall not far from normal or slightly below normal. Normal rainfall is about an inch per week.
Dates                            Weather Element   Outlook
May 17 - May 22            Temperatures        -4F to -8F
May 17 - May 22            Rainfall                 0.25-1.0 inches north to south
May 23 - May 31            Temperatures         +1F to +3F
May 23 - May 31            Rainfall                 0.75-1.0 inches
The two week rainfall outlook can be seen in the graphic. Normal rainfall for the period is about 2 inches.
