Outdoors Forecast: Improving!

This week will start off with more of the same, but sunshine is around the corner. And that's good news for outdoorsmen and especially folks who make their living outdoors such as contractors, farmers and gardeners. This rainy, cool pattern has been a real pain!

Morel mushroom hunters will have to wait a bit for that big pick of delicious treats. Fungi only form under specific moisture and temperature conditions. Ground temps are cooler now than they were in the first week of April for much of Iowa. Since Morels are a fungus inside the ground, they too are feeling the chill. Our weather pattern looks to postpone the conditions that will make Morels flourish and this will likely mean a shorter window of opportunity to see good numbers of the Morels that many of us are craving!

So here's the good news, we're recovering... and it's happening this week. Lamoni's soil temperature Sunday was 54 at 4" depth. Near Lake Rathbun its up to the low 50s and we're seeing reports of Little Greys. South/east facing slopes will be warmer and are generally the first to pop and the soil moisture is more than adequate this week. If my forecast is right, much better and widespread mushroom activity will be holding off until the end of this week! An assortment of the White Morel (morchella deliciosa) commonly called Little Greys and even some of the common morels or Yellow Morel (morchella esculenta) which are much bigger, will likely be found in central and southern Iowa on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Turkey hunters have been pretty lucky. I've heard of a lot of folks with great success despite the tough conditions. Turkey's use every break in the rain that they can get, so you hunters should too! Cloudy and cool doesn't usually keep the birds on the roost, but a pouring rain sure will. Thunder can sometimes be your ally, since the birds often shock gobble to that, and it gives away their location. But why in the world are you outside if it's thundering!?

I'm just itching for a sunny day to take the boat out and go fishing, or turkey hunt, or track down some Morels. But spring doesn't wait for the weather, and pretty soon we're going to spring right into summer! So get outside and enjoy a few breaks in the weather! Good luck!