NCI Market Update Webinar Series: Weather Edition | Featuring Daryl Ritchison
Daryl Ritchison, Director of North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN).
The Northern Crops Institute (NCI) hosted another Market Update webinar this past week. This episode was a special Weather Edition featuring Daryl Ritchison, Director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN).
As is typical for these Weather Update webinars, Daryl extensively covered a wide variety of subjects in his presentation. The first topic he addressed were the numerous sites that NDAWN maintains. These sites are found all across North Dakota, Northeastern Montana, and in the Northwestern region of Minnesota, and have grown to encompass 155 monitoring stations. These are used to inform NDAWN about current weather conditions in the region along with assisting in developing future weather forecasts.
Sea surface temperature anomalies, June 2022.
Daryl then continued by discussing the conditions of the world’s oceans. As they are currently in a La Niña period, the equatorial Pacific Ocean is cooler than average this time of year. He showed how the Atlantic differs in its temperature conditions compared to the Pacific, using the analogy of a “sandwich” to describe them: cooler temperatures in the Northern Atlantic by Greenland, warmer temperatures further South by the U.S. east coastal states, and then cooler again even further South towards South America.
From there, Daryl transitioned into conditions in the South American region of the world. Conditions there vary by specific location, with more rain than average appearing in the Northern region of the continent and less rain than average in the Southern region. He forecasted that this will continue with South America’s planting/early growth season from October to December. And that temperatures during this time will be warmer than average in the Southern region – Argentina in particular – but average elsewhere on the continent.
Temperature anomalies for Europe, April-June 2022.
After concluding this forecast, Daryl continued onward to Europe. In this region, he explained that conditions here are often strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation, which refers to the particular path the jet stream takes depending on the placement of various weather factors. France and the surrounding countries have recently been in a high heat wave, but remained relatively close to average in terms of precipitation amounts. Daryl forecasted that the Northern half of Europe would be cooler (hovering around average temperatures) and that the Southern half would be warmer and drier than average.
After Europe, Daryl pivoted to Asia briefly. Here, he shared that there have been very few tropical storms (typhoons, hurricanes, etc.), which is unusual for this time of year. For precipitation amounts, many areas of the region have experienced higher-than-average rainfall. He forecasted that the rain and cooling conditions of the region will result in a solid rice growing season.
Percentage of average rain for North Dakota and the surrounding region, June 2022.
Finally, to round out his presentation, Daryl visited closer to home by providing an update on North America. He explained that, for the most part, precipitation in the Southern region of the United States was less than usual and vice-versa for the Northern region. Focusing more on North Dakota specifically, Daryl showed that, for the most part, the state was drier than usual. Canada has seen more moisture than usual, with the exception of South-Central Saskatchewan. For temperatures, the Southeast and Midwest in the United States have largely been warmer than usual. Daryl forecasted that the trend of dry and warm in our region will continue for the rest of the summer, with heat and dryness increasing as we progress through summer.
These market updates were created to engage with past and present course participants and offer market insight to those professionals. By providing this pertinent information on various topics, NCI has fostered growth and learning worldwide. NCI greatly appreciates contributions from speakers like Daryl Ritchison during these Market Update webinars.
Click below to watch the recording.