U.S. Weather/Crop Progress
Crop Condition and Crop Progress Reports not applicable until Spring 2025.
Highlights:
- In the West, mild, dry, tranquil weather prevails between storm systems. Several areas, including the eastern slopes of the northern Rockies and much of the Southwest, have missed out on early-season storms that have helped to establish high-elevation snowpack in other areas of the West. Thursday’s high temperatures will reach 80°F or higher in much of the Desert Southwest.
- On the Plains, snowy, windy weather is causing travel disruptions and increasing livestock stress across much of North Dakota and portions of neighboring states. Very windy weather, with local gusts above 60 mph, extends as far south as Nebraska. Meanwhile, mild, breezy weather prevails across the southern half of the Plains, where Thursday’s high temperatures should range from 55 to 70°F.
- In the Corn Belt, travel conditions are deteriorating from North Dakota into Wisconsin, due to wind-driven snow and falling temperatures. Additionally, upper Midwestern livestock are experiencing temporarily stressful conditions, amid several inches of new snow and wind gusts locally topping 40 mph. The remainder of the Midwest is experiencing mild weather in advance of an approaching cold front, with high winds raking parts of the western Corn Belt.
- In the South, warmth lingers across Florida’s peninsula, while cooler air is overspreading the remainder of the region. Dry weather trails recent rainfall, which was heaviest (2 to 4 inches or more) in parts of the mid-South and along Florida’s east coast. As conditions permit, late-season fieldwork—including cotton harvesting—continues across the Deep South.
Outlook:
A dynamic storm system currently crossing the upper Midwest will race southeastward, reaching the middle Atlantic Coast late Friday. Thereafter, most of the atmospheric energy will remain offshore, although snowy, breezy weather may graze the middle and northern Atlantic States on Friday night into Saturday. Cold air trailing the storm system will be primarily focused across the Midwest and Northeast. Meanwhile, several new rounds of Pacific storminess will begin to spread inland, starting later Thursday along the northern Pacific Coast. Five-day precipitation totals could reach 2 to 8 inches or more in parts of northern California and the Pacific Northwest, mainly from the Cascades and northern Sierra Nevada westward. However, some snow will spread as far east as the northern Rockies. Early next week, a fast-moving disturbance could deliver some pre- holiday wintry precipitation in the Midwest, as well as some rain farther south. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for December 24 – 28 calls for the likelihood of warmer-than-normal weather nationwide, except for near-normal temperatures along the middle and northern Atlantic Coast. Meanwhile, near- or above-normal precipitation across most of the country should contrast with drier-than-normal conditions in northern New England and the Desert Southwest.
