09/05/23 Accelerated End to Growing Season Pulls Harvest Closer

Conditions in the Gulf and Atlantic are currently guiding the paths of systems/storms/hurricanes. The Bermuda high continues to be out of position, sitting further NE in the Atlantic than normal. That allows hurricanes to veer off north before they reach the Gulf or US coast. The one that made it into the Gulf hit western Florida and then scooted up the East coast. It hit landfall as a cat3+ hurricane because hot Gulf water temps fueled it. These conditions serve to pull hurricanes away from the central/western Gulf. The high-pressure ridge now dominating the heartland is also a barrier to western hurricane landfall. This blocks gulf moisture from reaching up into the nation’s midsection where drought continues. Most everything tropical is being pushed eastward this year.   This is the last day here of what was another brutal 4 day stretch of extremely stressful crop conditions. Heat and wind sucked the life out of plants. Temps now cool but rain is still absent. 45% of the country’s corn and 40% of its soybeans remain in drought. That also says that 55% of corn and 60% of soybeans were not being harmed by drought. However, the stress is not static. The…