If distance between weather systems is what you need to get equipment in the field to get planting underway, Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says Michigan is in a slightly better position than the rest of the country to make that happen in his Planting Weather Forecast over the next 10 to 14 days.
“I think I am going to be able to give you a three, maybe four-day stretch of mostly rain-free weather, at least in Lower Michigan. However, the systems that bookend that are going to be significant. So still, it’s going to be something that we have to watch whether we can get enough drying in a short enough timeframe to be able to get back into the fields.”
Martin’s forecast kicks off with scattered showers Friday and early Saturday.
“At this point, they look relatively light with a few hundredths to a few tenths. So, that’s the good news. We start to dry down on Saturday. No additional precipitation Saturday, just some on-again-off-again clouds. On Sunday, the majority of Lower Michigan should be dry. I won’t rule out pop-up shower and thunderstorm activity in southwestern Lower Michigan and even a bit into South Central, but that’s going to be the anomaly not the norm.”
Martin says next week is active, but we have a dry stretch that extends through Monday.
“So, if you are lucky enough to not get precipitation on Sunday, that means you’ll be dry from Saturday afternoon through Sunday and Monday. We have a frontal boundary coming in next Tuesday into Wednesday with hit and miss scattered showers and big thunderstorms possible overnight Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. So, rain totals there could be a quarter to one and a half inches. And then behind that we are unsettled for Thursday afternoon through Saturday. I do think that we make it through the Friday, Saturday, early Sunday timeframe without a lot of additional moisture. So, there’s another potential drier stretch.”
Find more forecast details from Martin later today at michiganagtoday.com, presented by Greenstone Farm Credit Services, greenstonefcs.com.
