2021: Marks Second Year Of Bad Precipitation Levels

Unfortunately, for western growers, 2021 marks the second poor year in a row of poor precipitation numbers.

"And that goes for about everything except the northern tier of the western US. So everything really from Oregon and California, eastward through Wyoming and southwards of the southern Rockies," said USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey. "Now much of that region is in to the spring dry season that comes between the winter season and the monsoon season that typically arrives in July, August, and and first half of September."

However, he points to a long window of time between now and early July when monsoon rains are expected.

"And in that time it's normal to have to irrigate crops and it's normal for it to be hot. But give the two years of drought along with the extremely limited surface water supplies and topsoil moisture it just makes a typically warm/dry situation even worse. Because it's tough to get crops through you have to irrigate them so heavily."

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