A Look at the Weather Forecast for the Next 36 Hours

Heading into the 4th of July weekend, it looks like parts of the Midwest and Southern Mississippi Valley will see some precipitation between now and Friday afternoon. Parts of the Dakotas and Montana still have significant pockets of extremely dry to droughty areas.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor released today, all substantial precipitation over the past week fell in the eastern half and southern half of the United States.

The author for this week's Drought Monitor, Jessica Blunden, National Centers for Environmental Information, writes that, "Tropical Storm Cindy played a large role. The storm made landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border on June 22, bringing heavy rains and subsequent flooding to parts of the South and the Ohio Valley. Dry areas in the path of Cindy saw immediate improvements, as reflected on this week’s drought map. Heat and lack of rain dominated from the West to the central and south central U.S, with temperatures rising into the 90s, 100s, and even into the 120s in some areas, with many temperature records broken. This led to some quickly deteriorating conditions across the heart of the country. Although temperatures were well below normal in the Northern Plains from the 23rd through the 27th, this did not help conditions; unfortunately there was little to no accompanying rain."

More information is available in today's AgDay-TV weather report by Meterologist Mike Hoffman.