A recent satellite-derived image from NASA published this week shows the deviation of vegetation from average “greenness”. This is a measure of how healthy and abundant the vegetation is at this point in time. You can see the big red area over the Southeast indicating that vegetation is behind normal conditions, or “less green” than usual. This may be due to earlier dry conditions this spring or excessive wet conditions that have occurred recently, slowing crop development. Since planting is also behind due to the wet soils, that also probably accounts for some of the delays in greenness.
It is also interesting to note that the Pacific Northwest is ahead of normal, in some cases by quite a bit. This is probably due to the warm conditions which have occurred over the winter and an earlier than usual start to the growing season there. Note the exception in California’s Central Valley where continuing drought conditions are likely a factor.
