One effect of Tropical Storm Isaac is likely to include drought-relieving rainfall for a big portion of the south-central United States, an agricultural meteorologist said Monday. Isaac was about 640 kilometers southeast of the mouth of the U.S. Mississippi River early Monday and, according to Global Weather Monitoring meteorologist John Dee, should hit land early Wednesday on either the Mississippi or Louisiana gulf coast as a Category 1 hurricane with 145 kilometer-per-hour (kph) winds. But a benefit to the storm will be welcome rains to parched U.S. crop and grazing lands. The worst drought in more than a half-century already has harmed much of the country's corn and soybean crops. While rains from Isaac will be welcomed, they arrive too late to be a major benefit to this year's crop. “The big question is how much will later-planted soybeans benefit," Dee told Reuters. “It would have helped a lot more if the rainfall came two weeks ago." Dee said from 7.5 to 12.5 or more of rain was expected starting Wednesday and Thursday in Louisiana and Mississippi, from 2.5 to 10 centimeters by Friday in Arkansas and Missouri, and from 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters or more by Saturday and Sunday in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. “It will certainly add valuable soil moisture for [autumn] planting of the winter wheat crop," Dee said. “Also, Kansas and Oklahoma received good rains of [2.5 to 5 centimeters] over the weekend, which will help plantings of hard red winter wheat there." A Reuters poll of analysts estimated the 2012 U.S. corn yield per acre at 121.5 bushels, the lowest level in 16 years, and production at 10.5 billion bushels, an eight-year low.
