An ag meteorologist says he wouldn’t be surprised to see the drought in the Western Corn Belt expand east this spring.
Eric Snodgrass with Nutrien Ag Solutions tells Brownfield that’s about 35 percent and it depends on how cold the water in the Gulf of Alaska gets. “I’m concerned about it spreading north into Nebraska farther and getting into South Dakota and west into Wyoming. But what about into Iowa or Missouri? If all of that shifts and gets larger in area by the time we get to about mid-May, then my level of risk goes way up.”
Snodgrass says the Gulf of Alaska is experiencing negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), a weather pattern that produces colder ocean temperatures on the West Coast, which can negatively impact rainfall in the Corn Belt.
