 This is the SugarBeat Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the SugarBeat growing season. SugarBeat producers in the valley are finally getting some relief in the form of rain. Darrell Richardson, director of NDON, or the North Dakota Agriculture Weather Network, will discuss the current conditions and give us a short and long-term forecast. Darrell, where are we right now and where are we headed weather-wise? The net positive of this entire season so far is really been the heat. Not everyone had enough moisture in the ground to use this heat, but our growing degree day units are surpassing even in many ways 2021. So most folks planted later than they wanted to this year, no doubt. But we've had so many growing degree day units, those heat units, that we've actually surpassed and are well ahead of the last couple of years. That's where there's been moisture. Some areas have struggled because of it, but we've now gotten rain in the last week, 10 days, as most people know. It really looks like we're going to have some multiple threats through the next couple of three weeks. There's always going to be the spot that gets missed. And unfortunately, like what happened up in the northern valley, some spots did get way too much. But most areas, I think, will have the good moisture supply. I think the heat is still going to be there. So at least in the short term, the next month, I think things continue to look very, very positive. Keyword is for most, not necessarily every spot going forward. You know, with the rain, though, there is always the negative with, you know, say, socasper and such. Does any of the El Niño and La Niña play into what's going on right now? A lot of times people think of El Niños as really good growing seasons. The thing is, there's not as much correlation with El Niños in the summertime as people think. Transitioning from a La Niña to an El Niño, there's not a finger snap in weather. It's a transitional period. It can take usually two or three months. You're not going to see a shift instantaneously. The atmosphere will still think this is going on and still stay on this pattern. But the El Niño is really just getting started. It's really not here yet because of the timing mechanisms. And a lot of times it takes two or three months to transition. Let's think about it. Two or three months is almost a growing season. It's a long period of time, especially when it happens like it did this year. So did El Niño have a factor? I think it is. It's probably the biggest player. It's not the only factor again, but we transitioned in it. And I think from, say, July through Christmas, the next six months, you'll see its influences a little bit more than we did in the last couple of months. And I think we're going to see some subtle changes in the pattern over what we had, say, in the first third of the growing season. Darryl, in general, rain is good. But how can rain be a problem with sugar beet? Well, with all the rain now, a couple of three weeks ago, people, moisture, moisture, we need rain, we need rain. And we did, most folks. And then now we're getting rain. And it rained again. And as I've alluded to already, I think in the next two or three weeks, we might have other opportunities for rain. There is going to be disease, pressure, or cacospora. I did want to point out that we worked with crystal sugar on this. We have a website, endon.info. If you go on to endon.info, there is an agricultural tab. And if you're on a phone because of mobile compliant, you'll see three dashed lines to let you know that there's a menu there. And if you touch that on your phone, go to agriculture. And in there, we will have a bunch of tabs. If you touch sugar beet, you will get growing degree day units from certain planting dates, about every 10 days from late April that will give you a good estimate of your growing degree day units. But if you look on the bottom, there's a rut and maggot tab, but there's also a cacospora tab. And so what crystal sugar asked us to do, could you make that into a mobile compliance site so we could add stations that they didn't have in their app? So on there, you will get two-day cacospora and seasonal cacospora totals. If it's not for a cacospora, sugar beet growing degree days, other units, how much it rained, all that stuff. And there actually is a drought tab, too. They'll show you some monthly totals. It'll give you the National Centers of Environmental Prediction, which is part of the National Weather Service, some of their estimated rainfall in the next seven to 10 days, little things on there, too. So there are some bonus hidden features in there. Thanks, Darryl. Our guest has been Darryl Richardson, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network. This is the Sugar Beet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season.