Another round of very heavy rain hit north-central Argentina during the weekend of Jan. 14-15, with notable crop damage and possibly acreage destruction for this year. Heaviest rains of 2 to 4 inches (50 to 100 millimeters) were noted in northern Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Cordoba provinces — a sector of the Argentina crop belt which already had extensive flooding.
Rainfall amounts this month have been extremely heavy in these areas. Rainfall totals logged by DTN senior ag meteorologist Joel Burgio show these totals just during January:
CORDOBA
Cordoba 2.34 inches 99% of normal
Rio Cuarto 3.34 inches 182% of normal
Marcos Juarez 7.95 inches 368% of normal (more than 3 times normal)
SANTA FE
Ceres 9.43 inches 390% of normal (almost 4 times normal)
Parana 9.42 inches 420% of normal (more than 4 times normal)
Rosario 7.26 inches 251% of normal (more than 2 times normal)
BUENOS AIRES (northern stations)
Junin 7.50 inches 319% of normal (more than 3 times normal)
Ezeiza 3.74 inches 162% of normal
This January rain is on top of heavy rain that fell during the last week of December. As a result, some large acreage loss is now feared, mostly planted to soybeans. One private estimate made available puts the acreage loss at possibly 2 million hectares, which equates to 5 million acres or close to 10% of the Argentina soybean planted acreage.
At the same time, southern Argentina crop areas just stay bone-dry. Two reporting stations in southern Buenos Aires, Neuquen and San Antonio, have not recorded a single drop of precipitation so far this month. That means crop loss threat from southern areas continues.
Source: DTNPF
Link: https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/perspectives/blogs/south-america-calling/blog-post/2017/01/18/argentina-flooding-poses-crop-loss