May 23, 2013

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Delay in corn planting season could cause decline in corn yields (AUDIO)

May 22, 2013 By

Rainfall and cold temperatures have caused delay in the corn planting season and a worry for corn producers looking to plant their crops.

University of Missouri Extension corn specialist Brent Myers says the optimal planting window for corn producers in Missouri is about a month long and ranges from the second week of April to the end of the first week in May; but due to excessive rainfall and cold temperatures, it’s pushed the corn planting season back further than producers would like.

Myers says that the late start of the corn planting season has caused a large majority of corn to be planted beyond the optimal yield window. He suggests that corn growers stick to planting hybrid corn maturities rather than switching to planting earlier season corn maturities through the end of the month.

“It declines very slowly at first after the first week of May, but then it declines more rapidly at the end of May and especially into June,” Myers said. “So the optimal planting window ended after the first week of May.” He says the later a corn crop is planted, the corn’s yield potential begins to decline.

Myers says after the end of May, corn yields begin to drop by 20 percent, and then by 40 percent by mid-June. “The optimal planting date has passed and we’re hoping to get crops in the field as soon as possible,” he said.

However, Myers says opportunity remains for a good growing season.

 

AUDIO: Mary Farucci reports. (1:00)

Filed Under: Agriculture, Featured, News, Weather

UPDATE: Weather Service finds evidence of ten tornadoes in Missouri from storms Monday

May 21, 2013 By

Update 05/22/2013 3:50pm: Evidence of a tenth tornado during Monday night’s storms has been found 3 miles east of Shell Knob in Southwest Missouri. The Weather Service believes that tornado touched down at about 7:50 Monday night. It uprooted and damaged trees in a 1.4 mile damage path 200 yards wide. Winds reached about 110 miles per hour, making it an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

Update 05/22/2013 2:00pm: The National Weather Service has found evidence of another EF-1 tornado that touched down Monday at about 8:05, about 3 miles north-northwest of Reeds Spring in Southwest Missouri. The storm uprooted trees in a damage path 100 yards wide and 1.4 miles long. Winds reached about 90 miles per hour.

Another EF-0 tornado touched down 2 miles north of Reeds Spring causing some tree damage. Its winds ranged from 80 to 85 miles per hour.

A survey team has also been sent to the Shell Knob area to investigate damage there.

UPDATE 05/22/2013 noon: The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado did touchdown southwest of Hannibal Monday night. That tornado uprooted and snapped trees and tore the tin roofing off of a barn as it passed about a mile south of Hannibal Regional Medical Center, before dissipating.  The tornado’s winds reached about 90 miles per hour, making it an EF-1.

The Weather Service says the same storm caused considerable wind damage in Hannibal. A portion of the roof on a building at Hannibal-LaGrange College was torn off and a brick building in downtown Hannibal had a wall collapse and part of its roof torn off. Another building on the south side of Hannibal also had part of its roof torn off, as well as other tree damage and broken windows.

Another EF-1 tornado crossed over from Oklahoma into Missouri Monday afternoon. The tornado came within about a half-mile from Seneca, snapping and uprooting trees in a damage path 600 yards wide and less than a mile into Missouri. Its wind speeds reached between 95 and 100 mph.

The Weather Service says these reports are not final and surveys do continue.

UPDATE:  The Weather Service has confirmed a third, EF-1 tornado touchdown 7 miles west of Lamar. The storm destroyed a couple of outbuildings and damged trees along a damage path nearly 7 miles long and up to 100 yards wide. Wind speeds are estimated to have reached 95 miles per hour.

National Weather Service assessment teams have confirmed five tornado touchdowns in Missouri from storms yesterday.

The National Weather Service's Pleasant Hill (Kansas City) office tweeted this picture, saying this damage is from a "likely EF-1 tornado" in Johnson and Pettis Counties. Its assessment team has since confirmed an EF-1 tornado did touch down in those areas.

The National Weather Service’s Pleasant Hill (Kansas City) office tweeted this picture, saying this damage is from a “likely EF-1 tornado” in Johnson and Pettis Counties. Its assessment team has since confirmed an EF-1 tornado did touch down in those areas.

Tornadoes with winds topping out at between 90 and 100 miles per hour caused damage near Knob Noster in western Missouri and near Carthage in southwest Missouri. Trees were uprooted, power lines were downed and outbuildings destroyed near Carthage. Those tornadoes rate EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

Tornadoes producing winds of about 85 miles per hour touched down in southwest Missouri near Lockwood, where a grocery store roof was damaged, trees were uprooted and a car port was thrown, and in the Orleans Trail public use area near Stockton, damaging a barn and several trees. Another weak tornado left a 100-yard wide path of minor damage near Gravois Mills in central Missouri, uprooting trees and causing minor structural damage. Those tornadoes rate EF-0.

An assessment team has determined that damage in Hannibal was not caused by a tornado. Instead, it says it found evidence of straight line winds gusting an estimated 80 to 100 miles an hour.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Weather Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Missouri native witnesses Moore, Oklahoma tornado (VIDEO)

May 21, 2013 By

Park Hills native Nick McMillian was one mile away from the tornado that devastated much of Moore, Oklahoma yesterday afternoon.  He’s a student at Freewill Baptist College there.  Shortly after the tornado swept through town, he talked with his cousin, Stuart McMillian, at Missourinet affiliate KJFF, Festus.

AUDIO: Stuart & Nick

He also has posted video of the storm he shot

Filed Under: Featured, News, Weather

Storm, debris hit Missouri

May 21, 2013 By

The storm system that produced the devastating tornado in Moore Oklahoma has brought debris into southwest Missouri, about 200 miles or more from Moore.  It also has brought some high winds, big hail, and heavy rains to various parts of the state. 

Joplin, which commemorates the second anniversary of its tornado tomorrow, is sending emergency first responders to Moore, where the death toll is now put at at least 51. Missouri Task Force One, based in Columbia, is readying supplies to send to Moore but has not been deployed.  Task Force One is a search, rescue, and recovery team that is mobilized for major disasters. 

The only confirmed tornado to cause damage in Missouri overnight hit Hannibal where  some roofs have bee torn off and homes have been damaged.  Emergency crews have been called in from neighboring counties.

Ameren reported about 5:30 this morning that 93-hundred customers are without power, mostly in the St. Charles and Franklin County areas and near Farmington.  Kansas City Power and Light has about 900 outages in the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Warrensburg areas as well as in Clinton, Nevada and Lamar areas, to the south.

Flash flooding has been reported in scattered areas with some observers reporting as much as two inches of rain in a short time.

We have no reports of injuries in any Missouri storm.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Weather

Missourians survey damage from storms that swept the state

May 21, 2013 By

Severe weather swept the state yesterday and through last night. The National Weather Service in Springfield says the threat for severe weather will continue to move through the eastern side of Missouri today, but the potential for dangerous tornadoes to strike has diminished.

Meteorologist Andy Foster says damage reports continue to come in. He reminds folks to keep a close eye on weather since it can change rapidly. And he says tornadoes aren’t the only major threat, reminding residents that lightning kills dozens of people each year. Foster says rain and thunderstorms will linger throughout today and into tomorrow, but then the weather should clear for the weekend.

Reports of debris falling in Branson is said to have come from the devastating tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma … some 250 miles away. Foster says it’s possible, pointing out it’s the same band of storms that went from Moore to Branson.

No deaths or serious injuries in Missouri have been reported at this time.

Here’s a list of preliminary damage reports from throughout the state. If you have damage in your area you’d like us to add to this list, please e-mail us at info@missourinet.com.

– Preliminary reports indicate a tornado touched down last night in the Hannibal area, tearing off roofs, damaging homes, downing power lines and poles. Power outages are widespread … people are being urged to stay in their homes. The storm snapped tree limbs filling roadways with debris and the area was pelted with golf-ball sized hail.  There are also reports of gas leaks. Schools are closed. Emergency officials have called in emergency crews from neighboring counties for help.

– Emergency Management officials say quarter sized hail was reported throughout the St. Louis area, in the Central Missouri town of Belle, and northeast Missouri’s Knox County. Southwest Missouri and the Ozarks was hard hit by winds 60 to 75 miles per hour, damaging homes and barns. Officials say some power lines are down but no severe damage, and trees falling on some homes and across roadways.

– In Southwest Missouri’s Barton County, winds lifted the roof partly off an 1800s building on the Lamar town square. Officials report lots of water and several limbs down.

– Joplin is sending first responders to Moore, Oklahoma, where a tornado has killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds more.

– Missouri’s Task Force One team is readying supplies to send to Moore, Oklahoma, but has not yet been deployed. Task Force One is a search, rescue and recovery team that has helped in massive disasters, such as the 9-11 twin towers collapse. The team was most recently deployed to help after the Northeast was struck by Hurricane Sandy.

– Heavy rains during rush hour snarled traffic in Columbia, pushing some cars off the road and into the ditch.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Weather
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