The radar estimates that some decent rains had already fallen through early this morning in much of northern Kansas, basically on either side of the Interstate 70 corridor from Topeka to Goodland. 

Within that area, I can confirm rainfall totals of 0.50 to 1.00", for places like Hays, Russell, Salina, and Great Bend. Over an inch of rain at Concordia and Manhattan, KS and a report of over 3.5 inches of rain at Fort Riley have been recorded. 

That is a nice start to what will continue to be a nice rain event for a big part of the hard-red belt and eventually a big part of the Corn Belt through a part of Monday. Most of the hard-red belt should see additional rains of at least a half inch, but probably another 1-2+ inches for western Oklahoma through central/eastern Kansas. 

Rains will slowly be working from west to east across a big part of the Corn Belt, for today through a part of Monday, with much of central/eastern Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, southern Wisconsin, southern Michigan, northern Indiana and central/northern Illinois looking at rains of over a half inch. Plus, the center part of that area is likely to see some 1-2+ inch totals. This is great rain, very much appreciated, but is not the start of any sort of "wet" pattern for the nation's midsection. 

Based on the current expectations of the track of Tropical Storm Isaac, only far southeastern parts of the nation should see good rains from the remnants of that storm, next week. It would not surprise me at all to see big parts of the Plains and Corn Belt see no rain at all in the 6-10 day period. 

Temperatures will clearly be warm as well, with 90's in the near term for central and eastern parts of the Corn Belt and more 90's next Thursday right through Labor Day weekend. The weather, this month, in the Midwest has been better, but a long ways from perfect. As a result, a lot of the crop was too far gone to be helped, anyway. With this in mind and with all the reports from the well- followed crop tour this week, I maintain an opinion that the national corn yield is below 120 bpa and the national soybean yield is below 36 or even 35 bpa.

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Written by Craig Solberg, Freese-Notis Weather.

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