Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal 
By Jim Noel, NOAA
After a dry start to winter, the weather pattern has gotten more active. Even though the La Niña pattern in the Pacific Ocean is weakening the effect will likely continue through spring. This favors a normal to wetter than normal pattern for Ohio. The western corn and soybean belt will likely continue with the normal to drier than normal pattern through spring.
The greatest chances for wetness appear to favor the southern half of Ohio with closer to normal conditions in northern Ohio. The spring temperatures continue to favor warmer than normal overall.
The result of the warmer than normal temperatures and normal to wetter than normal conditions into spring is there could be some planting delays but they do not look severe at this time. With the above normal temperatures it favors a normal or slightly earlier than normal last freeze.
Indications for summer are for above normal temperatures and a trend for near normal precipitation to possibly below normal at some point in summer to early fall.
Please monitor the latest NOAA climate forecasts at:
The latest river information can be found at:
The latest flood, drought and seasonal briefings from the Ohio River Forecast Center can be found at:
https://www.weather.gov/ohrfc/Briefings
The latest 16-day rainfall forecast can be found here:
https://www.weather.gov/images/ohrfc/dynamic/NAEFS16.apcp.mean.total.png.
