Climate Changed
Soaked Midwest Farmers Can Blame Warm Pacific for Juicing Storms
- High sea temperatures provide fuel for soggy planting season
- Climate change adds to water woes as deluges rise in East
Floodwaters surround corn sitting under a collapsed grain bin in this aerial photograph over Thurman, Iowa, on March 23, 2019. T
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
American farmers raising their fists to the sky this year may be better off directing their ire toward the ocean.
Abnormally warm water in the eastern Pacific, along with a weak El Nino along the equator, have pumped a train of storms across the U.S. That has soaked fields that need to be planted with corn, soybeans and cotton and slowed barges full of grain, coal and chemicals struggling against the stiff current of the Mississippi and other Midwest rivers.