Farmers in the South American country of Argentina have struggled through severe drought, thanks to multiple years of La Niña. Mark Brusberg, USDA Chief Meteorologist, spoke at the recent USDA Ag Outlook Forum. He says the pattern may finally be changing soon.
“The good news for some of these producers is we are now forecast to go into an El Nino. What does that mean, or what can they look forward to? This is the circulation pattern. Now, this is completely the opposite of what you would expect to normally have, and you’ve got reverse flow all over the place. But interestingly enough, the impacts are the opposite of what you get during a La Niña, and in the case of Argentina, you would expect wetter-than-normal conditions.”
Past weather patterns are a reason for some optimism ahead in Argentina.
“Here’s what we’ve seen in past years Argentina, and this is off of the PS and D (Production, Supply, and Distribution) online that the Foreign Agricultural Service is maintaining, and you see that the years after La Niña is they tend to rebound. Some years, they’ve had record yields after several poor yields. If I were a farmer in Argentina, I would be optimistic. Not a forecast. I would think that I wouldn’t see another year of drought.”
