Temperature, snowfall and precipitation data listed below were collected at a weather station located a little more than 4 miles from the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center (NWIARDC), while soil temperature probes are located at the NWIARDC.
Air temperature. The average high temperature in April was 2 degrees below the 30-year average and the average low temperature was 3 degrees below average (Table). Perhaps it is record cold this winter that made April 2014 seem particularly cool: the average high temperature in 2013 was 5 degrees cooler.
Soil temperature. Soil temperatures remained cool throughout April (Table). Average high and low temperatures 4 inches below the surface of both sod or bare soil were within 0.5 degrees of the average April 2013 soil temperatures.
The cool soils and periodic rains kept many farmers out of fields throughout much of the month. Corn planting progressed rapidly between storm fronts at the NWIARDC once soil temperatures began rising (Figure). As of Thursday, May 8 more than 90 percent of the corn acres have been seeded.
APRIL 2014 WEATHER
| Soil Temperature | ||||
| Air Temp | 4" (Bare) | 4" (Sod) | ||
| (°F) | Growing Degree Days | -------------------(°F)--------------- | ||
| Monthly average high | 63 | Monthly total: 216 | 57 | 51 |
| Monthly average low | 38 | 42 | 45 | |
| Observed high (date) | 93 (13) | 21 (13) | 74 (21) | 59 (27,29) |
| Observed low (date) | 25 (15) | 0 (2-5,15,16) | 27 (5) | 37 (6) |
Precipitation
April precipitation was 4.29 inches, 0.37 inches above the 30-year average but 4.2 inches below the 2013 total (Table).
2014 PRECIPITATION (in inches)
| Since January 1 | ||||
| Month | Monthly Total | Monthly departure from average | Total accumulation | Total departure |
| January | 1.19 | -0.47 | 1.19 | -0.47 |
| February | 3.33 | +1.46 | 4.52 | +0.99 |
| March | 2.49 | -0.26 | 7.01 | +0.73 |
| April | 4.29 | +0.37 | 11.30 | +0.11 |