While we can?t do anything about the weather, we still like to know how bad it is somewhere else to make ourselves feel better (if you are Republican) or feel worse (if you are a Democrat).
As of now, 2017 is dubbed a ?strange? year. Ken Root talked to a noted meteorologist, someone who can predict the weather, which they cannot guarantee, and have no consequences if the prediction is wrong.
The drought continues to rage in North and South Dakota, with no immediate end in sight. Meteorologist and owner of Advantage Weather Solutions Ryan Martin said the drought has expanded further west and north of the Dakotas.
?Montana is getting hammered really bad as well, especially in the eastern part. We?ve heard about the fires of course, but the fires are there because of drought. Then you have this drought extending up in Saskatchewan, not so much into Manitoba. Maybe extreme western Manitoba is seeing it, but in Saskatchewan they are seeing pretty significant drought as well,? Martin said.
Martin said some of the hardest hit areas have seen only one-half to one-and-a-half inches of rain combined over the past two months. As far as any relief in sight, Martin said he does not see much. In Martin?s words, ?dryness begets more dryness.? Martin said there is not anything significant blocking the upper Midwest from receiving rainfall. It is more a case of this has been a strange summer for weather patterns.
?This has just been a really odd summer,? Martin said. ?Here we are talking about drought in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and the Canadian prairies, and then we?ve had record rains or near record rains in parts of the eastern Corn Belt. We?ve had parts of the eastern Corn Belt, to date, that have seen almost twice their yearly rain. We have this disconnect in terms of the way the pattern is moving across.?
Martin said he feels as though the spring did not get off to a good start, as the upper Midwest came out of a winter much warmer and drier than normal. The poor start to spring led to a deficit in moisture, and built upon it as the spring went by. Moving toward fall and harvest time, Martin said the strange weather pattern has the potential to stick around for a while.
?That?s what?s interesting about seeing crop progress/crop condition ratings, and even seeing how the market has been watching the weather,? Martin said. ?We are nowhere near the same condition as last year, that?s obvious on the USDA?s reports. We are dealing with a real weird year here. It could stay kind of fluky right on into harvest time and fall, till we actually get a pattern change going into a different season.?
That was Ryan Martin, meteorologist and owner of Advantage Weather Solutions.
