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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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