Ag Weather Impacts

Ag Weather Impacts

The active weather pattern we've seen recently across the inland northwest is taking a break this week. Rainfall over the past weekend was between two tenths and a half inch. Storm systems this week will be diving south and providing abundant moisture for California. Look for high pressure to be controlling the weather pattern for the Columbia Basin and when we're in November, December or January that typically means fog and cold air inversions. It looks like the ridge will break down over next weekend and allow multiple weather systems to move across the area next week with rain and mountain snow. In the meantime, though, temperatures the rest of this week will average 7 to 10 degrees below normal and winds will be light. The cold temperatures will put wheat and pastures growth into a hiatus. The lack of wind and precipitation means that livestock cold stress will be rather minimal, even with the cold temperatures. Looking at the snowpack, we're sitting at 50 to 75 percent of the usual amount for early December for most of the area. Southeast Washington and northeast Oregon are doing better at 80 to 90 percent. Of course, the numbers will decline this week, but likely improve again the next couple weeks. The outlook for December from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center is calling for above normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.
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