Today is the last day of meteorological autumn. Autumn is the transitional season between the three warmest months of the year, to the three coldest months of the year. Autumn 2017 was near average for temperatures with the cold November helping with the trend toward average after warmer than average September and October. Temperatures may… Read more End of Autumn
Tag: 2017
Yield Declines
Estimated soybean averaged yield for North Dakota taken as a whole for the 2017 growing season is 35 bushels an acre, down nearly 7 bushels per acre for the record yield from 2016. Corn estimated average yield for North Dakota is 134 bushels per acre down 24 bushels per acre for the record set in… Read more Yield Declines
Coldest November Start Since 2003
The cold weather so far this month has definitely been noticeable. This is the coldest start since 2003 and depending on your area around the 10th coldest such period in the past 100 years. So yes, it has not been your imagination that even by our standards this month as been very cold to this… Read more Coldest November Start Since 2003
Cold Start
Many of you may recall that November 2016 was a warm one. It was one of the warmest Novembers on record. Much of the region recorded very little snowfall with temperature 10-15 degrees above average. I personally always consider winter to be from November 1 through March 31 in this area, meaning last year the… Read more Cold Start
Soil Freezing
The soil temperatures are getting close to the freezing point with the colder weather of the past couple of weeks. In most locations any freezing of the soils has only been in the top couple of inches, but clearly the frozen soil season will be with us soon. Because of the drier than average warm… Read more Soil Freezing
Cold Getting Colder
The weather looks dry and cold this week. There will likely be an occasional period of flurries or very light snow but generally speaking the next several days should not produce much in the way of moisture, but the cold will be very noticeable. Monday morning temperatures dropped below zero for the first time in… Read more Cold Getting Colder
Summer 2017
The summer of 2017 ranked as the 19th driest on record for the state of North Dakota based on data from the National Centers of Environmental Information (NCEI). The southwestern portion of the state had the lowest ranking as the 7th driest and southeastern north Dakota had the highest ranking as the 36th driest. This past… Read more Summer 2017
The Great Eclipse
We are now less than one week away from the Great Solar Eclipse of 2017. Next Monday, August 21, the moon will cover the sun in a narrow corridor from Oregon to South Carolina. This is the first eclipse to go from coast to coast in the United States since 1918, almost exactly 100 years… Read more The Great Eclipse
Cool Rules
The below average temperatures over the past several days has been associated with a ridge of high pressure aloft along the west coast of the United States. This created a situation where even coastal or near coastal cities in the Pacific Northwest recorded some very warm temperatures. Locations on the eastern side of the Cascade… Read more Cool Rules
July 2017
July continued the recent pattern with western North Dakota recording temperatures above average and eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota recording temperatures close to average. Part of that is associated with the drier soils in the west, but also, it has just been warmer in western North Dakota than other locations based on the weather… Read more July 2017