Farmers are paying closer attention to the weather forecast as the harvest season gets closer. With a late planted crop throughout much of the Northern Plains, an extended warm season is needed to bring that crop to maturity. North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network Director Daryl Ritchison says the remaining summer months will bring average to slightly above average temperatures. “While we fall into a short, cool pattern the beginning of this week, those warmer temperatures will come back and should continue through Labor Day,” says Ritchison. “August and September still look pretty promising, according to the analog packages I look at.” October of 2018 brought cold temperatures and a layer of snow to portions of the North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Ritchison says the odds of this October being as cold as the last are fairly low. Hear more in this interview.