Unseasonably mild weather continues across the upper Midwest with little snow cover in sight. One inch or less amounts decorate northern Minnesota, far northern Wisconsin, and sections of North Dakota. Snow cover is sparse and well below historical levels for this time of year.
Extreme drought conditions continue across central and eastern Iowa. Most of Minnesota is abnormally dry with scattered areas of moderate to severe drought.
The driest counties in Wisconsin remain in the norther portion of the state and around Crawford, Richland, Sauk, Southern Adams, and Vernon County.
North and South Dakota are in good shape, except for far northeastern North Dakota where conditions are extremely dry.
A holiday storm is brewing out west, promising to bring unusually warm weather across the region through early next week. Many locations may see record temperatures on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Widespread showers and thunderstorms will move in over the Christmas weekend as well, offering some relief to bone dry fields across the central and southern United States.
Some scattered lake effect snow might impact the Great Lakes later in the week. Some portions of norther Minnesota, North Dakota, and norther Wisconsin could be just cold enough for a wintry mix that turns to snow. However, it’s going to be uncharacteristically warm for the traditional holiday storm.
The latest 90-day outlook is still hinting strongly at above normal temperatures into March with near to below normal precipitation. El Nino is still going strong and promising to influence North American weather conditions through summer 2024 at least. Stress on livestock has been low compliments of this balmy pattern.
Parts of Brazil are experiencing wetter weather that has dominated southern regions with much drier conditions in the north. El Nino continues to impact the monsoon season, which has adversely affected soybean plating and development in some of Brazil’s primary growing regions.
