The southern Plains hard-red winter wheat belt will also see similar rains this week for the same time frame. Beyond this week comes cooler weather for next week, possibly cool enough for the first frost or freeze of the season for a part of the Midwest. Such temperatures would have no impact on corn, and it is questionable about their impact on the soybean crop as well given the advanced state of maturity of this year's crop.
Considerable rains for eastern and southern parts of the Corn Belt back on Friday means that we have seen considerable drought relief for that area this month. Rains there were commonly on the order of one to two inches but locally were much heavier than that.
Combining that rain with what fell the previous weekend from the remnants of Hurricane Isaac, the first eight days of this month brought some very big rainfall totals to some spots. Totals in that period exceeded four inches for Cape Girardeau, Paducah, Champaign, Indianapolis, Bloomington (IN), and Evansville; more than five inches for Decatur and Lawrenceville; and more than six inches for Decatur and Cincinnati. Much of central/southern Illinois, far eastern Missouri, much of Indiana, parts of Ohio, and much of Kentucky has recorded rain so far this that is more than three times the normal levels (locally more than six or even seven times normal levels). What such rains would have meant 30-45 days ago we will never know, but we have to assume that these rains are only beneficial for winter wheat planting and drought relief and are not helping 2012 corn and soybean crops. In fact, with so much of the activity on Friday accompanied by severe weather in the form of very strong winds, we probably saw a number of areas where unharvested corn was flattened.
