2023 Spring Farm Outlook

Page 7 2023 Logan County Spring Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2023 through the month, most of the weather systems were weak only producing minor snow accumulations. One major snowstorm was forecast for January 25th, but warm air Early outlooks for that storm from the computer models showed central Illinois targeted for up to 8 to 12 inches of snow during that event. But alas, the low-pressure system did not follow those outlooks and the heavy snow fell in other areas of the Midwest and Great Lakes areas. Besides that storm, not much other snow occurred in December. The month ended with just 1.8 inches of snowfall which was 3.1 inches below normal. However, enough rain occurred in December to push Lincoln to above normal precipitation for the month by 0.45 inches, and the drought monitor improved in Logan County to no ‘abnormally dry’ (D0 - yellow) areas identified on January 1st, 2023. January and February are when Lincoln and Logan County typically see the majority (62%) of the snowfall for the winter season. While January had periodic snowfall events Continued -- and warm ground reduced snow amounts, and Lincoln only picked up 2.1 inches of snow from that event. The total snow for the month ended up at 3.9 inches, which was 1.8 inches below normal. There were a couple of rain events in January too, but overall, January’s precipitation fell below normal, reversing the December ‘trend’ of above normal precipitation. As a result, the drought monitor indicated that abnormally dry (D0) conditions returned to Logan County for all but the last few days of January. The late month storm was enough to pull Logan County out of the drought status and February started off with no drought conditions defined on the drought monitor. February did not see any snow until the 16th and 17th, when trace snow amounts were recorded. An additional trace of snow was recorded on Feb 24th, which closed out the snowfall in Lincoln for February. February 2023 went into the records as the second least snowy February on record in Lincoln, behind only February 1987 when no snow at all was recorded. Most days in