Only winter wheat is cultivated during the monitoring period in the North American MPZ.

Weather was mostly humid, cold and cloudy. Precipitation was significant above average (up 41%), while TEMP was down just below by 0.6℃; sunshine, however, fell as much as 8%. Two cold waves occurred in the region, one in November and another at the end of January.

The Northern Great Plains, the most important winter wheat zone experienced as well excessive precipitation (RAIN +25%), low temperature (TEMP departure of -0.4℃) and cloudy conditions (RADPAR -6%). In the Corn Belt and the Cotton Belt to Mexican Nordeste, the precipitation anomaly reached 36% and 54%, respectively, providing ample soil moisture for the sowing of summer crops.

The potential biomass was close to the average of the last five years. The cropped arable land fraction is down 9% below the average value of the previous five years. In the southern Great Plains, potential biomass was favorable(BIOMSS departure larger than +20%) and VCIx above 1.0 indicates very favorable crop condition, especially in Texas.

Altogether, CropWatch assesses the situation in North America as average.

Figure.X Spatial distribution of rainfall profiles

Figure.X Spatial distribution of temperature profiles

Figure.X Potential biomass departure from 5YA

Figure.X Maximum VCI

Figure.X VHI Minimum

Figure.X Cropped and uncropped arable land