La Nina 2020-22 is most likely to hang on in 2022 and last into early 2023. La Nina should weaken but last into a third year for only the 5th time since 1950. Forecast confidence remains below average, but the trend is firmly toward lingering La Nina.

The April 2022 global soil moisture anomalies and 3-month trend reveal many important crop-area developments as the middle third of 2022 arrives. The Midwest to Mid-south U.S. trends wetter. The wet trend in this zone is typical of La Nina spring. Drought conditions remain profound across the western half of the U.S. and have intensified in the West/Southwest States. In Europe, dryness has intensified from France and Portugal eastward across Central Europe to Italy and further east into Ukraine.