Weather Forecast (05/26/22)
This past week was yet another week with all NDAWN (North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network) stations recording at least some rain. In fact, as many of you know, some areas even recorded a brief accumulating snow on Friday, May 20. These next 7 days will also bring more rain across the area with all areas probably recording rain this forecast period. The rain should hold off for most of you until Saturday, giving us today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) with dry conditions to continue planting where that would be possible.
With snow falling over parts of North Dakota last week, it will come as no surprise that temperatures were well below average during the period of May 18 to May 24, 2022. Most NDAWN station were in the 7 to 10 degrees below average range. There will be another cooler than average period coming next week, but overall, temperatures should be close to the average during this forecast period.
Figures 3 and 4 below are forecasted estimates of Growing Degree Days (GDDs) base 32° (wheat and small grains) and 50° (Corn and Soybeans). The number of GDDs in the next week should be very close to average for this time of year with a majority of the heat units occurring through the weekend with those cooler than average temperatures coming next week.
Although many did not start planting until this week, Figures 5 and 6 are the number of accumulated GDDs for wheat (Base 32°) and Corn/Soybeans (Base 50°) at NDAWN weather stations during the period of May 18 through May 24, 2022.