In the West, unusually cool weather is slowing crop development. Widespread showers accompany the cool conditions, especially across the northern Intermountain West.
On the Plains, mostly dry weather prevails, although isolated showers and thunderstorms are developing in a few areas. Hot weather persists across the drought-stricken southern High Plains, where today’s high temperatures will again approach or reach 100°F.
In the Corn Belt, showers and thunderstorms are maintaining a slow pace of fieldwork. Conditions are a little more conducive to corn and soybean planting in the Ohio Valley, where warm weather prevails and showers are more isolated. Currently, the heaviest rain is falling across the Mississippi Valley and spreading into the lower Great Lakes region.
In the South, significant shower activity is confined to the southern tip of Florida. Elsewhere, warm, mostly dry weather is promoting fieldwork, including previously delayed planting operations in the Mississippi Delta.
Outlook: An active weather pattern will continue for the remainder of the week across the Plains and Midwest. Five-day rainfall totals could reach 2 to 4 inches on the northern High Plains and 2 to 5 inches from the southeastern Plains into the lower Great Lakes region. However, significant rainfall will again bypass the droughtaffected southern High Plains. Elsewhere, heavy rain (up to 5 inches) will also fall in southern Florida, but mostly dry weather will prevail in the southern Mid-Atlantic States and from California into the Southwest. As the week progresses, hot weather will shift into the nation’s northeastern quadrant, while cool air will settle across the Plains. Toward week’s end, hot weather will develop in the Pacific Coast States. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for June 2-6 calls for warmer-than-normal weather nationwide, except for near- to below-normal temperatures across Florida’s peninsula and from the northern Plains into the upper Midwest. Meanwhile, near- to above-normal precipitation across the maj