Left Out in the Cold, North Dakota Farmers Don't Know When They'll Plant

From devastating flooding in eastern North Dakota to snow piled up farther west, April created two weather extremes for farmers who need to plant as May gets underway.

A state that battled widespread drought last spring has seen a nearly 180-degree turn around with weather recently, as a steady stream of moisture is preventing North Dakota farmers from planting so far this year.

“The weather has been a little bit strange,” says Paul Thomas, a farmer in north-central North Dakota. “We were looking at a really early spring. In fact, we actually had our drill hooked up, ready to go seed on Monday before the snowstorm hit.”

Thomas says that was in mid-April, the week of Easter. Those plans quickly changed once the forecast showed not just a dusting of snow, but a blizzard.

“Then all of a sudden we got hit with 40 inches of snow and it sure changed the outlook for spring work,” he says.

Back-to-Back Blizzards

The snow didn’t blast the area and then melt away. Instead, the one blizzard was followed by more snow events, as other areas of the state saw rain.

April snowstorms in North Dakota aren’t rare, but back-to-back blizzards and the cold have been extreme for even here.

“Probably the one thing different about this April storm compared to some in the past is we've stayed so cold since we've had the snow,” says Thomas. “We're going on 12 days now, and we're still looking at major snow banks and fields that are 60% to 70% covered with snow yet.”

Rare Weather Events 

The moisture was welcomed in the western part of the state where farmers and ranchers were still faced with drought. While it is causing hurdles for farmers concerned about planting late, USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says flooding has been a concern.

“For North Dakota, the April 12-14 blizzard was particularly extreme, with widespread 1- to 2½-foot snowfall totals, winds above 60 mph, and multiple days below 10°F in the storm’s wake,” says Rippey. “It was a very unusual event, even for North Dakota in April.  And, of course, it was followed within a few days by the April 17-18 snowfall and then last weekend’s powerful storm. In eastern North Dakota, where the latest storm brought heavy rain, near-record flooding will occur over the next few days, north of Grand Forks toward the Canadian border. The Red River at Oslo, Minn., should crest later this week very close to the record set on April 1, 2009.”

Running Out of Time?

Water-covered fields and farm ground buried under snow now are currently common sights in North Dakota. With the calendar now showing May, Thomas says it’s a race against the calendar with weather outlooks not promising for planting in the next two to three weeks.

“We'll plant corn all the way out until about May 25,” he says. “That's kind of our drop dead date, but we try and get it all in by May 10 to May 15.”

Even with that window closing, Thomas says he’s not ready to switch his planting plans just yet.

“Our plans for planting corn and seeding our small grains, we're still going to stay with the same crop mix,” says Thomas. “We'll see how long this takes and when it warms up.”

Concerns About the Cold 

His biggest concern right now isn’t just the cold, but when and how all the snow melts off. He hopes to see the “perfect melt,” which would consist of 45- to 50-degree days. He says that would allow some of the moisture to soak in, without it all running off.

Even with the concerns over the lack of planting progress, it's a different challenge from what farmers in his area experienced last year. Last spring, North Dakota farmers battled dryness that impacted planting decisions, as USDA's data showed 92% of the state's topsoil was rated short to very short of moisture. With the concerns about the lack of moisture, farmers were debating parking planters until it rained.

Fast forward to this year, and Thomas says while it's a different kind of challenge, the abundance of moisture is sprouting optimism about what harvest could bring after last year’s drought cut the area’s crop yields down to at least half of normal.

“The moisture, although it presents  a lot of challenges for us, it certainly gives us that hope of a lot of opportunity for a good crop as well,” he adds.