CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture Online)--Drew Lerner, Senior Agricultural Meterologist with World Weather Inc., says with 28 inches of rain in a large part of Iowa in the past 60 days, it could be weeks before serious fieldwork is performed.

During a Chicago Mercantile Exchange event here, Lerner announced this year is the seventh wettest for the eastern Corn Belt in 114 years.

For late June, early July, the Midwest is seen drying down, upper Midwest staying wet, the U.S. Southeast turning wet, and a dry pattern drifting northwest.

Going forward, Lerner says the weather patterns are set up to have drier-than-usual conditions in late summer for the southern Corn Belt, a warm-to-hot pattern for the Midwest, a cooler eastern Corn Belt, and the driest in the western Corn Belt and Plains.

“Keep in mind, that with better hybrids these days, dry conditions or even drought conditions don’t mean crop failure,” Lerner says. I see no wholesale drought for the Midwest, but there could be crop stress this summer.”

CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture Online)--Drew Lerner, Senior Agricultural Meterologist with World Weather Inc., says with 28 inches of rain in a large part of Iowa in the past 60 days, it could be weeks before serious fieldwork is performed.