Air humidity is more important than soil moisture in influencing whether it rains in the United States Corn Belt, an agricultural area in the Midwest, stretching from Indiana to Nebraska and responsible for more than 35% of the world’s most important grain crop, according to a new study by Penn State researchers.
Air humidity is more important than soil moisture in influencing whether it rains in the United States Corn Belt, an agricultural area in the Midwest, stretching from Indiana to Nebraska and responsible for more than 35% of the world’s most important grain crop, according to a new study by Penn State researchers.
“We were curious about the effect soil moisture has on convective precipitation in the Corn Belt under different atmospheric conditions, such as dry or humid,” said Connor Chapman, who graduated in 2020 with a master of science degree in geography and is lead author on the paper. “Plenty of research of this nature has been done for the Great Plains region, but the neighboring Corn Belt — which has a different climate type — has received much less attention.
Soil moisture is considered an essential climate variable, according to the Global Climate Observing System, because it determines the amount of evaporation and cooling of the air near the Earth’s surface. As soil moisture amounts decrease, either during drought or as a result of climate change, the reduced evaporation can amplify the warming, Carleton said.
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