Ag Weather Impacts

After experiencing record cold across the Columbia Basin, it’s going to take a until early next week to recover to near normal. The coldest temperature was 16 in the outlying areas near Pendleton, but most farms were in the 20 to 25 degree range. There were a few areas of snow Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, mainly above 1500 feet, but reported amounts were less than a half inch. The dry and cool northwest flow will continue today and become more west to southwest on Saturday. You can plan on a ridge of high pressure to give a dry weather pattern through early next week, After that, look for a Pacific weather disturbance and front to produce a chance for rain Tuesday night into next weekend. At this time, it appears rainfall amounts will be mainly a quarter inch or less, except ¼ to ¾ inch west of Ellesnburg and Yakima and near the Blue Mountains. so this could impact field work and fall harvest activities in those areas. We’ll take a more detailed look at this with on our Tuesday impacts. Soil temperatures at the 2 inch depth are currently averging in the mid and upper 40s and will show little change today, and then creep into the lower to mid 50s by the middle of next week. Yesterday, NOAA updated the El Nino condition prediction with up to a 60 percent chance of it remaining neutral through next Spring. So that means neither La Nina nor El Nino.