A continued lack of significant rainfall has led to a larger percentage of the state experiencing drought conditions. Unfortunately, the dry weather conditions may remain for a while.
“I do not see the pattern changing through at least the 10th of July,” says Hoosier Ag Today’s Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin.
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map released on June 22, 52.8 percent of Indiana is under a ‘moderate drought’, while 13 counties in northwestern Indiana are experiencing a ‘severe drought’.
Martin says the lack of rain is having a negative impact on the state’s corn crops.
“First of all, agronomically speaking, we’re affecting yield if we do not get the ear girth to a certain level,” according to Martin. “The other thing is that we’re seeing a high variability within individual cornfields. You can have corn from the V2 and V3 stage all the way up to V6, V7, or V8 stage within the same field. That impacts yield and we’re running out of time to say that we can see the lower stages catch up with the others.”
Although the soils are much lighter in northwestern Indiana, the drought is also causing problems in heavier soils across the rest of the state.
“For example, to the southwest of Fort Wayne where there was moisture early on and they were a little bit later with planting—now we’re seeing emergence issues there because it has gone so dry after initially having rain that those top layers have dried out. Even though the subsoil moisture may be held on to it a little bit better, we’re not seeing those heavier soils be able to allow germination and growth. We’re all dealing from the same lack of rain—it’s just how the crop can handle drought conditions really comes down to soil type,” says Martin.
He adds that we may see rain this weekend, but the dry conditions will likely remain for several more weeks.
“We have a chance of some precipitation overnight Sunday night into Monday. In my mind, it’s not the best chance because again we have a fairly dry atmospheric column above us so it’s going to take some significant moisture to try and bust through that,” says Martin. “Sunday night into Monday morning, we could see anywhere from a one-tenth of an inch to one inch of rain. I do not see the pattern changing right now. I think that’s the biggest key. We’re entrenched in a pattern and I really think it’s going to take something significant to change the pattern.”
Across Indiana, 97.7 percent of the state is ‘abnormally dry’, while 10.7 percent is experiencing a ‘severe drought’, says the U.S. Drought Monitor.
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Sources: U.S. Drought Monitor (University of Nebraska-Lincoln).
