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The NDSU Extension weekly podcast In the Pod: Soybean Updates delivers timely insights and expert advice on soybean production.
You're listening to In The Pod, Soybean Updates, a weekly trek into the latest soybean information from NDSU Extension. North Dakota farmers are keeping a close watch over the drought. In fact, many farmers report their conditions to the US Drought Monitor. Here to discuss the Drought Monitor and long range forecast is Daryl Ritchison, North Dakota Agriculture Weather Network director and state climatologist. Daryl, what are the current drought conditions in North Dakota?
Daryl Ritchison:The Drought Monitor comes out every Thursday morning, and it's based on conditions through Tuesday morning. So there's always a little bit of a delay in there. But the latest one has the Western Corridor really near Highway 85 and D 3. That's extreme drought. So the categories go from D 0 to D 4. So here in D 3, it's almost as bad as it gets. Also now Clay County up through Trail County and then corresponding areas of Minnesota also in D 3, so that extreme drought category. And outside of a couple just very small parts of North Dakota, pretty much 95% approximately of the state is at least in d zero, which is abnormally dry, or d one, two, or three. So, really, dry conditions are dominating the state right now.
Bruce Sundeen:Let's talk about the Drought Monitor. How does that work?
Daryl Ritchison:The Drought Monitor every week has a different author. And sometimes there's two of them, but more often than not, there's a single author. Most states, not all, but most states in North Dakota is one of the states, do send recommendations to the author every week because we're local. We're feet on the ground, so to speak. I lead that. Every week, I'm the one who ends up with some help. We'll send here's what we're thinking should be the conditions in North Dakota for the upcoming drought monitor. So if you can participate in that, actually, there's these things called see more reports. If you type in c m o r reports in any search engine, they would come up, and it's condition monitoring observation reports. Anyone can go going, hey. You know, I think I'm worse or better than that situation, what the Drought Monitor's saying last week. You could fill out a report and be part of the show, really, whatever you wanna call it. You can participate in really helping me and others determine what the drought conditions are in a given spot.
Bruce Sundeen:How important are these reports?
Daryl Ritchison:Well, here's the thing. End is very large, the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network. I'm getting a couple 100 reports, but that's still not covering all of the state. Matter of fact, rain avoids the End Dawn stations a lot of times. You might be in a dry area. You know, it might be three, four, five townships that just will not rain, but we're not getting that data. That's why it's really, really important for people to send in the reports and let us know what's happening, especially if the conditions you're seeing on the Drought Monitor don't necessarily fit what you think the conditions are. I cannot emphasize enough how important they are, and the good news is North Dakota usually most weeks have the most reports of any state in The United States, which always makes me proud.
Bruce Sundeen:Daryl, is there any relief from this dry spell in the long range forecast?
Daryl Ritchison:I think once we get into the fall, we might get a little rainier. A lot of times when there's strong El Ninos in the Pacific Ocean, we turn wet for a little time period in fall, not everyone, but that would be a situation where it'd be both good and bad. Might slow down harvest, but at the same time, soil moisture conditions for next year's harvest. I mentioned that because if we don't see much improvement this fall, the odds favor that we'll have another year without a lot of snow, which means this could bleed into 2027. And so that would be a concern for next year. But in the short term, say the next couple of weeks, yeah, there is going to be some rain here and there, but it does not look like it's gonna be any different than a lot of rains we had this year. You know, this area, oh, this guy got two inches, but I live two miles away and got nothing. Or there's a little streak that was 10 miles wide and 20 miles long. Oh, yeah. They got a good rain, but, again, it wasn't very widespread. So, yeah, it's gonna rain in the next couple of weeks, but it still looks like dry is going to be the dominant word in our vocabulary probably into early September.
Bruce Sundeen:Thanks, Daryl. Our guest has been Daryl Ritchison, NDON director and state climatologist for North Dakota. You're listening to In The Pod, soybean updates, a weekly trek into the latest soybean information from NDSU Extension supported by the North Dakota Soybean Council.