Midwest Braces for 115-Degree Heat, Renewing Crop Worries
- Last weeks of growing season could see corn, soybean yield dip
- Global food supply security increasingly hinges on US harvest
Corn stalks are chopped for animal feed on a farm in Tiffin, Iowa on August 13.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
A heat wave sweeping the Midwest is threatening to dry out grain crops in the final few weeks of the growing season, putting at risk a bumper US harvest that’s key to keeping global food inflation in check.
Temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 115 degrees in parts of the Midwest this week, renewing worries from earlier in the season when drought drove crop conditions to their worst since the late 1980s before they improved significantly with the return of rain.