While all the nation’s major corn producing states are behind harvest, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota are further behind than most states, according to the USDA. Minnesota was 43 percent completed and South Dakota at 27 percent completed. Other major corn producing state were rate completed:  Illinois, 52 percent; Iowa, 59 percent; Kansas, 80 percent; Ohio, 58 percent; and Missouri, 72 percent.

While more than half of the state’s estimated 1.5 billion corn harvest has yet to be picked, corn conditions were rated 79 percent good or excellent, near last year’s good and excellent rating. Irrigated and dry land corn conditions were rated 83 percent and 74 percent good or excellent.

State soybean harvest was 97 percent completed, and sorghum was lagging behind at 44 percent completed 20 days behind the five year average of 87 percent completed. Winter wheat conditions were rated 70 percent good or excellent compared to last year’s 82 percent.

The state’s pasture and range conditions were rated 75 percent good or excellent, above last year’s rating.

According to the USDA, this year’s corn harvest in Nebraska is comparable to the 1972 harvest in days behind. What’s delaying harvest progress was contined high grain moisture levels. Corn that has been harvested has been in the upper teens or low 20s in moisture and needs to be artifically dried though area drying capacity is unable to keep up with the demand. A number of area grain drying fires have been reported in the last couple weeks as a result of that heavy demand.

Statewide, the USDA reported for the week ending Nov. 15, temperatures were raining six degrees above normal November temperatures.

One of the reasons for the lack of natural drying across Nebraska and the country was that the October 2009 average temperature for the contiguous United States was the third coolest on record for that month according to NOAA’s State of the Climate report, which was issued last week.

The average October temperature of 50.8 degrees F was 4.0 degrees F below the 20th Century average. Preliminary data also reveals this was the wettest October on record with average precipitation across the contiguous United States reaching 4.15 inches, 2.04 inches above the 1901-2000 average.

October weather highlights include:

* October 2009 was marked by an active weather pattern that reinforced unseasonably cold air behind a series of cold fronts. Temperatures were below normal in all regions with the exception of the Southeast which had near normal temperatures for the month.

* Oklahoma recorded its coldest October on record while the month ranked in the top five for Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

* Florida was the only state to record an above normal temperature average in October. It was the sixth consecutive month that Florida’s temperature was above normal.

* The nationwide average precipitation of 4.15 inches nearly doubled the long-term average. This was the first month since December 2007 that no region in the United States recorded below normal precipitation.

* Iowa, Arkansas, and Louisiana recorded their wettest October while only Florida, Utah, and Arizona had below normal precipitation.

* Moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 12 percent of the contiguous United States, the second-smallest drought footprint of the decade, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Major drought episodes in California and South Texas improved significantly. Drought conditions, however, emerged across much of Arizona.

* About 45 percent of the contiguous United States had moderately-to-extremely wet conditions at the end of October, according to the Palmer Index. This is the largest such footprint since February 2005.

* Two major snow storms hit the Upper Midwest and the western Plains states. By month’s end, 13.6 percent of the nation was under snow cover, according to NOAA’s National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.

* Cheyenne, Wyo., tallied 28 inches of snow in October, making this the city’s snowiest October on record. North Platte, Neb., recorded 30.3 inches of snow, making October 2009 the snowiest month ever for the city.

* October saw below-normal fire activity, with a total of 3,207 fires that burned about 158,000 acres, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center.