Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 315: Real Rain, More Heat, & Severe Storms: What’s Next Across the Cattle Belt with Gary Lezack
Transcript
- 0:00Today we are once again welcoming Gary Lezak back to the
- 0:04Cattle USA Daily podcast. Gary has been on with us for
- 0:09almost a year and a half now. It's been pretty crazy to think
- 0:13about how long Gary has been with us recording this podcast
- 0:16and coming on every week or bi weekly to share about the
- 0:20weather and what we are seeing in long term predictive weather.
- 0:25Today, Gary is heading on some rain that we can expect across
- 0:29the cattle bell throughout the United States in the next few
- 0:31weeks. And then he is also touching on
- 0:34summer months. What we can expect as we go into
- 0:37those summer months, some heat waves coming up and some severe
- 0:41weather outlook as well. Before we hop into today's
- 0:43podcast episode with Gary, if you are watching on YouTube,
- 0:46make sure you take a second to hit that subscribe button.
- 0:48And like this episode. If you're watching on any of our
- 0:50other podcast platforms, make sure that you take a second to
- 0:53go follow the show, write and review it and share it with a
- 0:55friend. Doing all of these things just
- 0:57continues to help us reach more people and make a wider impact
- 1:01across the entirety of the cattle industry.
- 1:03Thank you for being here. And without further ado, let's
- 1:05go ahead and hear from Gary. Lisa.
- 1:11Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
- 1:13Your go to source. For the latest livestock
- 1:15markets, industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
- 1:19today, I'm your host Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate
- 1:22for agriculture. Here to keep.
- 1:24You informed and connected, now let's dive into today's episode.
- 1:32Gary, welcome back to another podcast once again, how are you
- 1:37this morning? I'm doing fantastic.
- 1:39I hope you're doing great, but it's great to be here a lot
- 1:43going on. We somehow, someway or moving
- 1:46through spring and summer is now just less than two months away.
- 1:50And this weather pattern we're in is fascinating.
- 1:53So in this this segment, this show, I want to talk to you
- 1:56about some of these fascinating things that are happening
- 1:59because we went through this weather pattern from October,
- 2:02November, when it's set up through the winter, through the
- 2:05brutally cold outbreaks that happened at the end of January
- 2:09into February. And that part of pattern just
- 2:11came through and no shock. We just had a freeze and a frost
- 2:14and a cold, cold spell across especially Nebraska, Iowa and
- 2:19northward. And now we're moving into May
- 2:22and it's a fascinating weather pattern.
- 2:25Lauren, It is. I am really just trying to enjoy
- 2:29the weather that we've got going on right now in Manhattan.
- 2:32It has been a beautiful spring and I have been trying to absorb
- 2:37it. And you saying summer is 2
- 2:38months off is still mind boggling to me because I feel
- 2:41like it's just around the corner with the way that the weather's
- 2:44been acting. But like you said, it's a
- 2:46fascinating mother pattern and I can't wait to hear all about it.
- 2:49We're going to have a real spring.
- 2:51Let me just tell you that there's a block right now that's
- 2:54forming over Greenland and there's a block that's forecast
- 2:57to form in the next 10 days over Alaska.
- 3:00But that does it prevents summer from settling in.
- 3:03So that's means we're going to have a real spring as we go into
- 3:06May. Now, late May, when it heats up,
- 3:08when there, you know, all, all bets are off there.
- 3:12But here's what's going on. We have sort of a fascinating
- 3:15spring pattern. There's sharp contrast that
- 3:20we've had. There's been some rain, timely
- 3:24rains. Now a farmer, just an oldie and
- 3:27the oldie dairy farm up in northern Kansas near the
- 3:30Nebraska border, they're getting almost all their planting and
- 3:34they have thousands of acres I think to plant and takes about
- 3:3710 days for them to plant their acreage.
- 3:40And so I've been in contact with them and whether 2020 has been
- 3:44consulting with them and to make sure they optimize.
- 3:48They were waiting to plant because of the possible freeze
- 3:52and then rain. They had to got a little delay
- 3:55to get wet. But by Friday this week, they
- 3:59will have had it pretty much planted.
- 4:01There's a chance of thunderstorms Thursday could
- 4:03delay that last acreage. But the good news, they're just
- 4:07about done planting. And now he tells me he doesn't
- 4:10want 5 inches of rain. He'll take one inch of rain.
- 4:14So me as a meteorologist, I've, we've been predicting the AG
- 4:19belt accurately for five years and I'm still learning, hey,
- 4:23we're all still learning about life, about the farm, about
- 4:27agriculture. There's always new things, new
- 4:30developments, new technologies. And what we're sharing with you
- 4:34with the LRC, the cycling pattern is a technology that
- 4:37helps plan your planting, helps you know when a disease
- 4:42environment might be developing due to heat and humidity,
- 4:45etcetera. But getting those crops in is
- 4:47the first stress. Then will the rain be timely in
- 4:51the next two weeks? The models are short.
- 4:54In fact, I'm going to call it up.
- 4:56I just want to see what it does show on this latest data.
- 4:58The latest data just came in. Interesting.
- 5:01It's already a little bit different as usual.
- 5:03But it has two inches of liquid rainfall or more from Goodland,
- 5:10where it has been extremely dry. In northwest Kansas, across the
- 5:15Nebraska, Kansas border, you go up to Grand Island and Hastings.
- 5:19It's also been extremely dry with drought conditions
- 5:23increasing. But this shows 1 1/2 to 2 inches
- 5:26of rain. As Justin said, that'd be
- 5:28perfect for his farm. But in Washington County, where
- 5:31his farm is located, it's forecasting 2 to 3 inches with
- 5:35four inches of rain just northwest of Kansas City.
- 5:39Because of these blocks that are developing up there, it's
- 5:42providing the conditions for it to be rather wet.
- 5:46So if you haven't put it on, been real aggressive and getting
- 5:49the crops in, you have time to get them in before all this rain
- 5:54gets in the next. That's the 10 day to 15 day
- 5:56outlook. So there are going to be many
- 5:58chances for rain adding up to 2345 inches.
- 6:02Be nice to get all that seed down before that happens.
- 6:06Yes, and it's so encouraging that we're going to get an
- 6:09actual spring. Feels like it has been really
- 6:12long time since we've been able to enjoy a true spring across
- 6:17the Midwest and not just jump from freezing temps straight to
- 6:21110. That is really encouraging and
- 6:24praying for rain or dry for whatever people are kind of
- 6:28needing in their area. Because I know our friends in
- 6:31Iowa and Illinois have been kind of living in a swamp recently.
- 6:34And then our friends in northwest Kansas are like, we
- 6:37need moisture. We need any of it.
- 6:39Absolutely. It's just kind of how the
- 6:41weather pattern is working right now, right, Carrie?
- 6:43Like anywhere that needs it isn't really getting it.
- 6:46And anywhere that doesn't need it is like, OK, we can, we can
- 6:48calm down now. Exactly.
- 6:50So you know, when it gets up to 90° later in May, Don't tell me
- 6:54that summer just all of a sudden happened.
- 6:56We didn't have spring. Let's enjoy this next few weeks
- 6:58before that happens because there's no real heat showing up.
- 7:02OK, So there's enough heat to cause some severe weather risks.
- 7:06So right now the pattern is setting up were, for example,
- 7:10across western Kansas and the High Plains of eastern Colorado,
- 7:143 to 6 inches of liquid is expected between now and the end
- 7:19of July. That's not a lot of rain.
- 7:21So we need to get it timed out perfectly to Kansas City area,
- 7:25eastern Kansas and northeastern Kansas, western Missouri,
- 7:29southern Iowa. 10 to 16 inches of liquid rainfall is expected
- 7:35to fall in your farm. That's from the RC model.
- 7:39And we have a dashboard that shows you day by day or week by
- 7:43week when the rain is expected to fall.
- 7:46And you can have that in January already.
- 7:49If you've had the dashboard, you'd be able to know that that
- 7:53is consistent, which weeks will be wet, which weeks will be dry
- 7:57through the season, but 10 to 16 inches of rain of the watch for
- 8:01flooding, muddy feed lots and delayed field work when those
- 8:06rains hit and the next two weeks, some areas could have 1/3
- 8:10of that already just like that as we go into the first week of
- 8:13May. So very interesting.
- 8:15There could be too much rain in spots and causing some problems
- 8:19for the cattle. See.
- 8:21And then just in I'm done looking at the weather pattern
- 8:24right now. It's just fascinating, Lauren
- 8:26watching the setup and it is right on schedule and here's
- 8:31what happens. Here's how we forecast the
- 8:33weather. I want to use a hurricane as an
- 8:35example. We could use like a winter storm
- 8:38and project when that would arrive in the spring, in the
- 8:40summer and what it means and we'll do that.
- 8:43But Hurricane Melissa formed around October the October the
- 8:4827th and 28th, Melissa was hitting Jamaica. 90 people were
- 8:54killed. It was a major problem.
- 8:57It moved slowly, produced lots of rain, flooding and high
- 9:00winds. It became a category 5
- 9:02hurricane. It was a monster storm.
- 9:05Think about that. October 27th, the 28th, we have
- 9:08an about an 11 week cycle. So 11 weeks after that would be
- 9:13November, December, January. So early January and 11 weeks
- 9:18after that would be late March. In late March, we had a repeat
- 9:23in Jamaica, believe it or not, the little complex of
- 9:26thunderstorms, it just increases the chance that there will be a
- 9:31hurricane there. Again, maybe not right at
- 9:33Jamaica. Jamaica's a small island.
- 9:35It's a country, it's a nation, but it's small.
- 9:38It could easily go West or east or north of there.
- 9:40So we'll see. But there will likely be some
- 9:43mid to late August into early September.
- 9:46So right now based on the LRC, we are able to predict with a
- 9:5065% probability that there will be a named storm in that area.
- 9:58And given the factory mid to late August, it would be moving
- 10:01W northwest towards the Gulf of Mexico.
- 10:04Texas would probably be the risk.
- 10:06The whole Gulf Coast has to pay attention when that forms.
- 10:09Most likely at that time of year they move West and northwest and
- 10:13then maybe curve at the end. Texas or Mexico would be the
- 10:16biggest risk for that system. The whole point is the pattern
- 10:21is cycling. We can take what has happened
- 10:24with a hurricane in the fall because it was the same pattern.
- 10:27Now we're in that set up last fall and predict when that
- 10:32hurricane may develop again. A new system would develop that
- 10:36same thing when you get your week by week forecast in the
- 10:39dashboard, if you have the weather 2020 Vision dashboard or
- 10:43you're following us on Substack, we do the same thing for winter
- 10:47storms, spring severe weather outbreaks.
- 10:49So far we've been hitting each one of these severe weather
- 10:52outbreaks on the head, including one that's happening Thursday of
- 10:54this week and it's been in our forecast since January when we
- 10:58put out there. But the point is the same way we
- 11:02predict the tropical systems, we put in the severe weather
- 11:05outbreaks and winter storms. It's just that in the tropics,
- 11:10we have a lot of time to learn. And by the time it gets to June,
- 11:14we've been through three full cycles, maybe 4 cycles or five
- 11:17cycles. And we can then have more
- 11:20confidence in those forecasts. Severe weather outbreaks, maybe
- 11:23there's only one or two cycles to look at.
- 11:26And winter storms are the hardest because we just have the
- 11:28first cycle to look at. But that's, that's my diatribe
- 11:32on trying to explain how we do it.
- 11:34It's pretty fascinating and we're not 100% accurate, but the
- 11:38River Vera above us is close to 100% accurate.
- 11:41Yeah. So when we look at that severe
- 11:44weather outlook that we have kind of for the rest of spring
- 11:48and going into summer, what are you really keeping your eye on
- 11:51right now, Gary? This season?
- 11:54The severe weather risks are going to be significant coming
- 11:57up April 28th to May 7th. I see some risks late May in the
- 12:02first part of June, big risk will come through.
- 12:04The one that produced the Tornadoes in eastern Kansas is
- 12:07going to cycle back through and that'll happen and Illinois has
- 12:12been hit and that's that part of that is going to be early June
- 12:15as well. So we can time them out for you.
- 12:17But right now, it's going to be a lot of rain with these severe
- 12:22weather risks in the next two weeks.
- 12:24Yeah. And then when we look out into
- 12:26summer, I know we have some heat waves coming and some other
- 12:30risks as far as the weather goes that you are really keeping your
- 12:34eye on. What's our update there, Gary?
- 12:37And then is there anything else that has kind of developed as we
- 12:41look at the rest of summer and start preparing for those
- 12:44months? We're always learning new things
- 12:46as every second goes by. But the heat wave that we had in
- 12:49we have had in the forecast for the first first half of August
- 12:52is a real thing. It's the first half of August.
- 12:55The corn crop is usually made or not by then.
- 12:58That'll be a factor as we get closer to harvest and as it
- 13:02could impact the soybeans a little bit more.
- 13:04But that first half of August, it is still right on schedule
- 13:09based on the LRC to have an increased probability of a
- 13:12significant heat wave, hopefully doesn't last longer than five
- 13:15days or seven days. Usually they don't, only in the
- 13:18worst summers, do they? So we'll just have to see how
- 13:20that sets up. But that part of the pattern is
- 13:22also cycling back through in the first half or May or so.
- 13:26So as I said, because of these blocks, it's preventing, instead
- 13:30of the heat building up over the United States, it's it's like
- 13:33impacting Alaska and Greenland and prevents us from having
- 13:37heat. So that will not be in play in
- 13:41that second-half of August. So that's coming.
- 13:43You can plan on that. What does that mean for the
- 13:45kettle? What does that mean for your
- 13:46farm? Keep that in mind as we go
- 13:48forward. But but that is the big heat
- 13:52wave is the late July first half of August hottest time of the
- 13:56year anyway, late July, early August, but first half onions is
- 13:59really a target for that. Well, is there anything else
- 14:02that we have not hit on or covered as far as the weather
- 14:05goes or anything else that we need to touch on today?
- 14:09Gary, you know, I'm having a birthday and so it's time to sit
- 14:13back, relax and smell the roses and enjoy life.
- 14:17So I highly recommend everyone get into the now, take a deep
- 14:21breath, enjoy just looking around.
- 14:24If you have grandkids or kids, just just enjoy the moment your
- 14:29dogs sit there with a dog on the deck and and don't worry about
- 14:33that next mountain you think you need to climb.
- 14:35Business climbing the mountain in real life is probably good,
- 14:38but there's always another mountain that's going to be in
- 14:41front of you. So enjoy life, relax and I'll
- 14:44take care of the weather for you.
- 14:45And we'll talk next week about these trends.
- 14:48Wonderful. Gary, as always, thank you for
- 14:50coming on to another episode. To all of our listeners out
- 14:53there, if you are interested in anything that Gary talked about
- 14:56today or just want to follow along on all of his crazy
- 14:59journeys, make sure you check out the show notes down below.
- 15:02I have all of the links for the Weather 2020 dashboard, the
- 15:06Global Predictor. I have all of Gary's social
- 15:08media links down there below as well.
- 15:11Thank you once again for listening to another episode of
- 15:13the Cattle USA Daily Podcast. We will see you all next time.