The Truth About Missouri Corn: It Makes Our Humidity Worse

So, if you've been dealing with the sweat and humidity outside the last couple of days, there's something besides Mother Nature that can take some of the blame. Corn. That's right; corn impacts our humidity a little bit.

Until today, I had never thought that corn could impact the weather. Then I stumbled onto Meteorologist Jacob Dickey's Facebook page. On it, he had a map showing the dew points. He pointed out how much higher the dew point values are in the Corn Belt and the Great Lakes, which include Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

According to the University of Illinois Extension, citing the U.S. Geological Survey, one acre of corn can add between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of water to the atmosphere a day.

University of Illinois Extension local foods and small farms educator Doug Gucker told Illinois Extension corn breathes. “It is more like when humans exhale; our breath has a higher water content than the surrounding air. It is the same thing in the cornfield, except plants do not have lungs, so they transpire.”

Illinois Extension says that plants open pores on their leaves called stomata when it's hot. This brings in oxygen and releases carbon dioxide and excess water. The water evaporates, cooling the plant. Corn growth peaks around the same time summer temperatures intensify the effect.

Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford told Illinois Extension scientists in large agricultural states have studied how crops affect local weather patterns since the 1980s. Ford tells Extension, "The amount of humidity coming off crops does matter. It's less than what's being blown in off the Gulf of Mexico, but our growing crops do have a documented impact."

So there you have it—it's not just Mother Nature playing with us when the heat and humidity move in. It's also partly the corn's fault. Still, it's worth the humidity for some delicious corn on the cob, and I'm not alone in holding that sentiment.