A large region of dry soils (and drought) across the northern half of Argentina attracts anomalous heat and more dryness as meteorological summer begins and Argentina drought worsens.

Today's midday report reveals a wet 12Z GFS forecast for the central and southern Mississippi River Valley. If correct, river levels will not descend sharply as 14-day outlooks indicate at Memphis, TN and other nearby locations.

NOAA/WPC trends wetter across the Mid-south U.S. in the latest U.S. 5-day precipitation forecast. The outlook produces an emerging area of heavy rain in northeast Texas tomorrow which shifts to the Lower Mississippi River on Thursday and strengthens potentially causing several in. of rain. The heavy rain will raise low river levels of the southern Mississippi River.

Northern hemisphere snow cover is well ahead of schedule particularly across Asia. Presence of expansive snow cover increases the risk of pooling arctic air which is indicated this week and strengthening in the 6-10-day period in Central Asia/Russia. At that time, China is somewhat warmer than normal. However, in the 11-15-day period all models agree that release of the arctic air into China is likely.