It’ll be a damp finish to the week, but Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin is optimistic that we’ll miss a lot of moisture moving through this weekend. The Michigan Ag Today Planting Weather Forecast is presented by Greenstone Farm Credit Services.
Martin is calling for a few hundredths to a quarter of an inch in Friday’s forecast.
“On Saturday and Sunday, the focal point of moisture seems to want to be just a little bit farther south- Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. At this point, I’m going to tentatively say Michigan can escape being mostly dry. Now, if we do see any moisture bubble up at all into Michigan, it’s going to be along and south of I-94, maybe stretch that to I-96 late Sunday afternoon, but I’m not keen on big moisture for the weekend in Michigan. I think we are going to be able to put together some slight evaporation and drying.”
Martin says low pressure gets cut off from the jet stream to start next week with the low sitting over eastern part of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee just throwing circulation around over the Eastern Corn Belt and Great Lakes.
“That means a lot of clouds for Monday. With the clouds, I won’t rule out a few hit and miss scattered showers, especially over Central and Western Michigan. Tuesday, we have clouds and maybe a pop-up shower or two. Wednesday, clouds, not as many showers around, but I definitely am thinking here for the first part of this coming week, we don’t see much drying across Michigan at all. So, maybe you’re able to get into the field if you were at the low end of the rain range on some of the action before. But it’s not going to be ideal.”
Martin says those clouds will keep a lid on temperatures too. From Wednesday forward though, he sees a dry pattern emerging across the Great Lakes.
“That should give us good sunshine, fast drying, good evaporation. The dry pattern goes through the weekend and right on through most of next week. So, this is when I think our next planting window really opens up is going to be from this midweek forward on through most of the following week. It should be a great opportunity here.”
Find more forecast details later Friday at MichiganAgToday.com.
