The weekly USDA NASS update showed Iowa off to a fast start with corn planting this season with an estimated 18% of the state now planted. The much needed rainfall over the Easter weekend has likely helped these newly planted seeds proceed with germination. Accumulated growing degree days (GDD) now bear monitoring to speed this process along. The featured chart looks into this with recent computed GDDs for Des Moines along with two forecasts, a simple period of record daily climatology, and accumulated values since 13 April plotted as well. There is certainly a lot going on with this chart, but it would indicate an above average accumulation over the near term period. As is typically the case this time of year, some days can have rather meager accumulations with chilly weather and others can be at the other extreme. Of course, too much early development can be a bad thing as it increases freeze risk damage as we still have a few weeks to be generally clear of most climatological risks of damaging freezes.

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