The second week of May continued the 2008 pattern of cool and wet spring weather across Iowa. in spite of a band of locally heavy rain the evening of May 7 that brought over 6 inches of rain to Alden and neighboring areas, corn planting progressed slowly but steadily. As of May 12, the USDA estimate for Iowa was that 46 percent of intended corn acreage was planted. Although that is only about one half of the five year average progress, it means more than 25 percent was planted in the week, with favorable (read that as dry—for now) weather forecast for the next 10 days.