An active, sometimes stormy weather pattern is resuming across much of the Heartland

Weather

An active, sometimes stormy weather pattern is resuming across much of the Heartland

Across the Corn Belt, locally severe thunderstorms are moving through areas west of the Mississippi River, including Iowa. While there will be some weakening Friday morning, storm activity should pick up again this afternoon across parts of the central and eastern Corn Belt. Producers are still making limited progress in planting between rains, with 30% of the country’s target corn area still to be planted by May 19.

Locally severe thunderstorms returned to the Plains on Thursday, with the greatest concentration of wind damage concentrated in southern and eastern Nebraska. A large convective complex has largely shifted into the western Corn Belt on Friday morning, bringing cool, dry weather to much of the central part of the country. Friday’s high temperatures in the Northern Plains will remain below 70°F. However, the 90-degree heat will linger across all of Texas except the northern part of the state.

In the south, very warm, moist conditions and generally abundant soil moisture reserves promote pasture growth, winter wheat maturation, and summer crop development. Early Friday there will be showers with isolated thunderstorms in the mid-South and Mid-Atlantic.

In the West, mostly dry weather has returned to the northern Rockies after late season snowfall. Dry weather prevails across much of the West, although a warming trend in California and the Southwest contrasts with persistent cold further north. Freezes were observed Friday morning in typically colder inland Northwest locations such as Pocatello, Idaho and Lander, Wyoming.