It has been a warmer-than-normal winter and North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network Director Daryl Ritchison says that has implications for the spring planting season. “Statistically at least, it increases our odds of an early spring,” said Ritchison. “If we can avoid that one storm, like a snow storm on April 10, it might finally be a year where a high percentage of folks can actually get out into the fields in April this spring.” It may seem like it has been a drier-than-normal winter, but Ritchison said that’s not the case. “We had a whole winter’s worth of rain in December so even if we don’t see another snowflake in the next six weeks, this winter is guaranteed to be a wetter-than-average winter.” Ritchison spoke at the NDSU Crop Insurance Conference.
