Ag Weather Forum              07/02 09:18

   June 2026 Weather Pattern Featured Areas of Heavy Rain, Flooding and Drought 
Reduction

   Heavy rain across a lot of the U.S. has set up row crops, and corn in 
particular, in good shape heading into the important month of July.

John Baranick
Staff Meteorologist

   June was a very active month of weather across the U.S. Corn Belt. A western 
ridge contained the heat largely west of the Rockies outside of some heat 
during the first and last week in the month. The weather pattern featured 
multiple systems and disturbances that traversed the country, bringing a lot of 
precipitation to portions of the Plains, across most of the Corn Belt, and 
extensively across the Gulf Coast and Southeast.

   That was enhanced by Tropical Storm Arthur, a very short-lived weak tropical 
storm. Despite its short life and limited winds as a weak tropical storm, it 
and its remnants brought areas of extremely heavy rain and flooding from the 
Texas coast through the Southeast from June 14-18.

   Flooding was an extensive problem for large areas of the country throughout 
the month. While a lot of attention was paid to Arthur and its remnants, which 
produced some areas of more than 8 inches of rain, we saw streaks of heavy 
thunderstorms that also produced repeated heavy rain from Missouri through the 
Ohio Valley, down through the South and Southeast.

   Near the end of the month, heavy rain spread westward to the Central and 
Southern Plains and a big system brought areas of heavy rain to the Northern 
Plains on the last weekend as the weather pattern began a major shift for the 
last few days of the month.

   When all is said and done, extensive heavy rain fell across large areas of 
the country outside of the West and Mid-Atlantic. Below is a list of select 
cities across the Plains, South, Midwest, and Southeast that saw very heavy 
rainfall for the month of June.

City               June 2026        2000-2025 June      Percent of average
                   Rainfall         average             rainfall
Great Falls, MT    4.94             2.58                191
Pueblo, CO         2.73             1.23                222
Valentine, NE      6.89             3.97                174
Dodge City, KS     7.46             3.69                202
Wichita, KS        12.37            5.58                222
Lawton, OK         5.21             3.18                164
Dallas-Fort Worth, 8.07             3.81                212
TX
Corpus Christi, TX 7.09             3.45                206
Kansas City, MO    8.63             5.45                158
Springfield, MO    9.04             4.57                198
Columbia, MO       8.51             4.73                180
St. Louis, MO      6.48             4.63                140
Dubuque, IA        9.76             5.20                188
Quincy, IL         10.89            4.86                224
Peoria, IL         8.74             4.21                208
Springfield, IL    8.54             4.83                177
Evansville, IN     10.34            4.29                241
Paducah, KY        7.67             4.18                183
Lexington, KY      10.61            4.62                230
Louisville, KY     9.72             4.54                214
Jackson, MS        9.52             4.69                203
Gulfport, MS       12.05            7.95                152
New Orleans, LA    13.31            7.56                176
Birmingham, AL     8.22             5.08                162

    

   Some of these cities and the areas around them carried drought conditions 
into the month of June. Those conditions have either been eased or eliminated. 
Some areas between these official sites have seen extensive heavy rainfall as 
well. Radar estimates show streaks in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, 
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and from Texas into Georgia with amounts 
that may have significantly eclipsed the above totals.

   Soil moisture has been much improved during June, setting up U.S. 
agriculture in an overall good position heading into the most important month 
for corn.

   The month wasn't a heavy rainfall month for all areas of the country though. 
Including the large portions of the West and Mid-Atlantic that saw below-normal 
rainfall, areas in western and central Texas and the Upper Midwest saw 
precipitation that wasn't nearly as heavy as elsewhere in the country. The 
below-normal amounts from southeast South Dakota into northwest Iowa and 
southern Minnesota have meant drought growth or maintenance throughout the 
month.

   And the heavy rainfall was not all a good thing. In many areas, it was 
accompanied by flooding and severe weather, particularly with incredibly strong 
winds and numerous tornadoes. A derecho was declared in northern Illinois 
during a big event on June 10-11. Another severe weather event ripped through 
the eastern Midwest on June 17-18 that caused multiple injuries and a couple of 
fatalities. The Father's Day event produced almost 70 tornadoes in the Central 
Plains and Midwest, with most of those occurring from southern Illinois into 
southern Indiana. Multiple reports of hurricane-force wind gusts blew across 
the Plains both early and late in the month. Severe weather damage may have had 
more of an impact to infrastructure and crop development than usual this year.

   To stay up to date with weather conditions and your local forecast for free 
from DTN, head over to 
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/weather/interactive-map

   John Baranick can be reached at john.baranick@dtn.comA




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