Planting Forecast: Chance of Scattered Showers by Midweek

The Michigan Ag Today Planting Weather Forecast is made possible by GreenStone arm Credit Services: Supporting rural communities and agriculture with reliable, consistent credit and financial services, today and tomorrow. Learn more at www.greenstonefcs.com

After a great week of dry weather, we see a dry trend continuing into early this week. Temps were chilly this past week, but we will see temps near to slightly above normal in the days/week ahead. Saturday will feature good sun. Sunday sees more clouds, especially over the southern half of Lower MI, but we will leave the forecast dry for now. Rains seem to want to stay farther south…but if we are cloudy like we expect, drying will be a little more limited on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday stay dry with a mix of clouds and sun. Rains are developing farther south over IN but stay out of all areas except for the far southernmost counties, particularly Berrien, Cass and St. Joe.

Wednesday brings our first good threat of scattered showers, with .1”-.5” possible over the southern half of Lower MI and focusing mostly on SE MI. There will be little to no threat farther north. Clouds from this disturbance linger though the overnight Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and then we see a refiring of moisture for Thursday midday and through the evening, which can bring another .25” while expanding north into the northern half of Lower MI too.

Friday turns out partly sunny and drier. The weekend will feature a mix of clouds and sun, and we could be a little unsettled. Scattered showers look to form closer to the Great Lakes. These showers likely trigger no more than .25” each day, Saturday and/or Sunday, and will have coverage of 40% or less. There will be plenty of holes, especially in interior MI for a return to field work.

We move back toward a drier pattern to finish the 10 day window for Monday the 24^th. Overall, we still are looking at a below normal 10 day period on rain (see map). Even though we have a few showers in the forecast, there is nothing here that screams “long term delay” in field work.

Extended Period:

Dryness continues for the start of the extended period Tuesday the 25^th and Wednesday the 26^th, although clouds build on Wednesday afternoon. That leads to showers Thursday the 27^th, brining .1”-.4” and 80% coverage across MI. We are dry again with warmer temps for the 28^th through the 31^st.

Weeks 3 & 4:

Slightly more active precipitation will be found over the region for week three, as we see normal to slightly above normal precipitation for the week. We dry down in week 4 and may be able to squeeze out a totally or mostly dry week there as we head toward mid-June. Temps for both weeks suggest we have finally shaken off the cold air, and we should be well above normal both weeks.

Week 3

Precipitation (green: above normal, brown: below)