Updraft: June 29, 2009 Archive

Knee high plus

Posted at 7:20 AM on June 29, 2009 by Craig Edwards (0 Comments)

As I traveled through the Nation's Heartland last week I got an upclose look at the expansive corn fields in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Standing on the 13th tee, bordering a corn field in Brownburg, Indiana, we determined that the corn was at least waist high, perhaps chest high.

The maturation of the crop really took off last week with the heat and moisture. Though we had precipitation on six of seven days last week in the Twin Cities, we are still well below normal for the month of June. Saturday morning's rainfall of a half inch was much welcomed.

Ag experts monitor the number growing degree days as measure of the corn's maturing. So far this growing season, Indianapolis has had 1433 growing degree days, while central Minnesota has had about 1050 through last Saturday. In addition, central Indiana has tallied more than twenty inch of rain since April 1st, compared to less than five inches at Twin Cities International airport.

A corn growing degree day (GDD) is an index used to express crop maturity. The index is computed by subtracting a base temperature of 50 F from the average of the maximum and minimum temperatures for the day. Minimum temperatures less than 50 F are set to 50, and maximum temperatures greater than 86 F are set to 86. These substitutions indicate that no appreciable growth is detected with temperatures lower than 50 or greater than 86.

The outlook for our region of the country seems to favor below normal temperatures and below normal precipitation into the second week of July. Check out the six to ten day outlook.

CE

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Back to school-not yet

Posted at 4:36 PM on June 29, 2009 by Craig Edwards (0 Comments)

I was joking with a colleague last week that it will not be long before we see advertisements for back to school specials. Some colleges begin classes in August. Apparently Mother Nature had the same thought as she tossed autumnlike weather our way.

After a week of very warm temperatures a shift in the jet stream has funneled cool air into the Great Lakes region. The satellite image from midday captured the cloud features that we often see in late September when the first intrusion of autumn air tumbles out of Canada.

We started the meteorological summer on June first and had a very chilly couple of days with highs only in the 50s. Last week we recorded three days of 90 degrees or better in the Twin Cities. With highs only in the 70s today and Tuesday we will end up about a degree or two below the thirty year average for the month of June.

CE

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