Field crops

Cotton boll opening is at 70 percent complete, behind last year’s 72 percent and the five-year average of 73 percent. Cotton conditions are good to excellent. Harvesting is underway in the Yuma area.

Most alfalfa is in fair to good condition. Harvesting is active on over three-fourths of Arizona’s acreage.

Vegetable, fruit, and specialty crops

Arizona growers shipped miscellaneous melons this week.

Weather summary

Temperatures were mostly below normal across Arizona for the week ending Sept. 12, ranging from 9 degrees below normal at Parker to 4 degrees above normal at Grand Canyon, Phoenix, and Prescott.

The highest temperature of the week was 109 degrees at Yuma. The lowest reading at 28 degrees occurred at Grand Canyon.

Precipitation was recorded in 9 of the 22 stations this week. Prescott received the least at .04 inches of precipitation. Flagstaff received the most at .34 inches of precipitation. Six of the 22 weather stations remain at below normal precipitation to date, mostly in the northern areas of the state.