The extreme heat in the Midwest has done nothing for the drought conditions lately. The latest drought monitor was released Thursday morning from the National Drought Mitigation Center and continues to show northern Illinois, and now southern Wisconsin, suffering from moderate drought conditions. No rain has fallen so far this month and with little expected this weekend I'm fearful things will turn much worse.
Since June 1st, the area is 4.60"
below where we should be for Meteorological Summer. When looking back to the beginning of the year the area is suffering from almost a seven inch rainfall deficit! While some relief may come this weekend with a weak cool front it doesn't appear to be enough to get us where we should be. If we don't get a decent amount of rain within the next couple of weeks it will have a devestating effect on the crops. Already stress in the corn crop has been experienced while soybean growth has slowed.
One of our weather watchers, Dom Castaldo, took some photos Thursday of the dry conditions near Mt. Morris, IL. Some of the corn crop in that area is really beginning to suffer. He noticed that some of the corn plants are starting to 'fire'. Meaning they are dying from the bottom up! This really isn't good and if we don't receive rain soon crop yields will likely suffer not only in northern Illinois, but for the entire state and even the Midwest.
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