We still have plenty of moisture in our planting forecast, but we are seeing some drier days coming near the end of the 10-day forecast window.
However, we start things off with scattered light rain showers Saturday morning. Most of the rain will be less than a quarter inch and in the northern half to third of the state. However, we won’t rule out hit and miss action and a lot of clouds father south. Still, threats of rain should be done by mid-to-late afternoon and clouds break from there.
We dry out Sunday and Monday. Clouds build Monday evening. Rain showers and thunderstorms return for Monday overnight and Tuesday. The late Monday action will be limited to far northern IN, but Tuesday we look for statewide precipitation. Rain totals can be 0.25” – 1” with coverage at 90 percent of the state.
Wednesday dries down in the north, but moisture lingers through midday in southern IN. We are rain free through Thursday and Friday.
Scattered showers come back for Friday night and Saturday morning, with rain totals of 0.25” – 0.75” and coverage at 60%. However, we shift that action out quickly Saturday afternoon. We finish the 10-day forecast window dry through Sunday. The map below shows cumulative rain totals for the 10-day period as we see them at this point.
Extended Period:
The week of May 20th looks mostly dry over a large part of the country. There is a minor area of low pressure developing Monday the 20th in southern Montana and the western Dakotas. However, it does not have much moisture with it, and we should see action stay mostly clear of the region. If it does hold together all the way into the corn belt, we will likely see a few showers Tuesday the 21st, but other than that, we have no serious threat of rain. Even that threat we have low confidence in developing, meaning we might just string together our first longer term dry window of the planting season so far.
Weeks 3 & 4:
Weeks three and four both look to be near normal, meaning we see at least one chance of rain in each 7 day period. Week 3 is cooler than normal, but week four should return to near and slightly above normal levels.
Week 3 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 3 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
Week 4 Precipitation (Green = above normal, Brown = below)
Week 4 Temperatures (yellow/orange = above normal, blue = below)
