Latest USDA weather update

Volume 101, No. 23, full report here.

Showers eased heat impacts in central and southern Russia, while locally heavy downpours continued in western crop districts.

Increasingly hot weather developed from eastern Ukraine into southern and central Russia, with daytime highs reaching the middle 30s (degrees C).

However, showers and thunderstorms (10-25 mm, locally more), particularly in key wheat areas of southern Russia and eastern Ukraine, helped mitigate potential yield losses as crops progressed through the flowering and filling stages of development.

Farther north, however, dry and hot conditions likely caused some stress to reproductive to filling winter crops (eh?) across southern portions of the Central and Volga Districts and adjacent portions of the Southern District. 

Meanwhile, additional moderate to heavy showers and thunderstorms (10-60 mm) from central and western Ukraine into Belarus and northwestern Russia further increased soil moisture for corn and small grains but hampered fieldwork, including late summer crop planting.