Since it is halfway through the month, it’s worth taking a look at how the climate is doing so far.  The maps below show that for most of the Southeast except for Florida, and to a lesser extent coastal areas, the temperatures have been well below normal, which has slowed the ripening of some crops. The precipitation and the clouds that go with it have been much higher than normal. The rainfall (and the clouds associated with it, which contributes to the cool temperatures) is much above normal in most parts due to the contribution of Hurricane Irma and to a lesser extent the end of Harvey, which mainly dumped rain to our northwest.

Fortunately for farmers, the next two weeks look like they will be much warmer and drier than the last two, which may give some help to farmers trying to bring in their crops or those hoping to fill out cotton bolls or soybean pods. The biggest question is the tropics since not only is TS Jose still out in the Atlantic (although not expected to affect the Southeast except for some coastal erosion at this point) but there are also two new tropical waves moving westward across the Atlantic which could come over some parts of the Southeast late in the month, although of course the models that far out are not at all reliable.

 

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