2021 Spring Farm

Page 30 2021 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 18, 2021 N ational Weather Service Acting Meteorologist-in-Charge and Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chris Miller in Lincoln looked back on the 2020 season and forward into 2021 weather for the Logan County area, with a focus on planting and crop success. Giving away the ending of the story: Miller says the weather patterns for this year look very good for early planting and good crop successes. This was not always the story though. The most recent years 2019 and 2020 presented extreme conditions for planting, bringing about significant tillage and planting delays. April 2020 started out with a great deal of soil moisture with the 2019 winter precipitation at the 90th percentile (30 year averages) and warmer than average temperatures. The first 10 days of April 2020 were unseasonably warmer than average, in the 80’s (degrees.) Planting conditions were setting up good, then the bottom fell out after the 10th. The pattern changed with fronts close to Logan County, bringing lots of rainstorms and thunderstorms that dropped 5-7 inches of rains across the county, way above normal. Nobody could get into the fields because it was so wet. Farmers were wondering if this was a repeat of the ponding, pooling and flooding conditions of Spring 2019. And then to add insult to injury, temperatures plummeted to below freezing around April 20, 2020. These cool temps did not allow for the The 2021 Planting Season: NO RED FLAGS! Continue 4