Heavy Rainfall Over Kansas Promising for Winter Wheat
Aug 25, 2010; 9:26 AM ET
Stalks of wheat awaiting harvest are shown at sunset, Monday, Aug. 24, 2010, near Moscow, Idaho. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Heavy rainfall of 1 to 5 inches on Tuesday throughout Kansas was welcomed for the start of winter wheat planting.
According to AccuWeather.com Agricultural Meteorologist Dale Mohler, an abnormally hot and dry summer throughout the Midwest has made the layer of topsoil necessary for the September winter wheat planting extremely dry.
Mohler said the winter wheat crop is usually planted in September, and farmers in Kansas are concerned that the dry weather thus far would hinder any hopes of an on-time planting.
Most of Kansas, with the exception of the far northwest corner of the state, was blanketed with a healthy dose of rainfall on Tuesday.
Rainfall 5 miles south of Wichita, Kan., totaled 5.25 inches on Tuesday.
Mohler expects normal rainfall over the next two weeks for the northern portion of the state. However, areas in the central and southern parts of Kansas can expect below normal rainfall through early September.
While it will be favorably moist over most of Kansas into September for the wheat planting, areas to the south missed out on Tuesday's rainfall, and Mohler is expecting little rain for the long-term.
"Going into September it will be dry in Oklahoma City and areas south into Texas," said Mohler.
As for an end to the hot weather this summer in the nation's midsection, folks could be in for at least another round of heat.
"It's not the last of the hot temperatures in the Midwest," said Mohler.
Kansas produces more wheat than any other U.S. state, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture.
The department said nearly one-fifth of all wheat grown in the U.S. is grown in Kansas, and roughly one-third of Kansas' 63,000 farmers grow wheat during the year.
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Story by Carly Porter, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer.
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