Weather Summary
Most areas from the Plains to the East Coast got a reprieve from July’s record-shattering heat, especially during a 2-week period in early to mid-August. However, heat did not disappear entirely, instead shifting to the other side of the Rockies. As a result, wildfire activity exploded across parts of the West, burning approximately 3.5 million acres of vegetation - much of it from northern California to the northern Rockies. In contrast, frequent showers associated with the monsoon circulation brought some drought relief and helped to suppress wildfires in the Southwest. Late in the month, record-setting heat returned to the Nation’s mid-section, maintaining severe stress on rangeland and pastures.
Cooler weather across the Plains, Midwest, and Mid-South came too late to significantly help drought-ravaged summer crops. Furthermore, many of the driest areas of the Plains and Midwest did not receive much rain during the period of cooler weather. As the month progressed, however, occasional rain chipped away at drought across the northern and eastern Corn Belt. At month’s end, the remnants of Hurricane Isaac triggered heavy showers across the Mid-South (e.g. Arkansas) and the southeastern Corn Belt (Missouri to Ohio), reviving pastures, benefiting a few late-developing soybeans, and boosting soil moisture in advance of soft red winter wheat planting.
Hurricane Isaac made landfall with sustained winds near 80 miles per hour just west of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, early on August 29, exactly 7 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the central Gulf Coast. Severe impacts related to Isaac were mostly confined to the central Gulf Coast region, which endured a coastal storm surge of 6 to 12 feet, as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain and subsequent flooding, and wind gusts to hurricane force (74 miles per hour or greater). At the height of the storm, more than 1 million customers lost electricity. In the Mississippi Delta, crops such as cotton, rice, and soybeans appeared to weather the storm without significant harm. However, Isaac moved through southern Louisiana’s sugarcane region, battering a crop that had been nearly half (43 percent) planted when the storm hit.
Elsewhere, the core drought region shifted westward during August, while favorably moist conditions prevailed across much of the East. By September 2, more than 40 percent of rangeland and pastures in every Plains and Midwestern State were rated very poor to poor, while at least 50 percent of pastures were rated good to excellent in every Gulf and Atlantic Coast State from Louisiana to Maryland. For the Plains’ hard red winter wheat belt, planting was just getting underway by September 2 under extremely dry conditions, as evidenced by 96 percent of the rangeland and pastures rated very poor to poor in Nebraska.
Source: USDA