• ST. LOUIS (AP) -- While winter has been unforgiving to most of the Midwest, the next several months will dictate the season's impact on all-important sectors, such as shipping and farming.
• Fast-melting snow in the northern Midwest likely won't be able to soak into the frozen ground, meaning excess water would feed into tributaries and ultimately the Mississippi River, raising water levels and affecting barge traffic. Meanwhile, more snow on key farming states could delay the planting of corn, mirroring last year's late start.
• Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska, spoke to The Associated Press about how the rest of the winter could impact agriculture and river shipping. Here are edited excerpts of the interview:
• Q: Can you describe the severity of the winter in terms of the snow accumulations in the Midwest so far?
• A: The further east you go, they have had more snow, more moisture. And the further west you go, as you get into central Iowa into eastern and central Nebraska, there hasn't been a lot of snow. This time of year ... we look at how deep that frost layer does go into the soils, because realistically that is the frozen moisture in the ground that we're going to be looking at come spring.
• With a lot of the snow that sits atop that, if we get these warm-ups during the winter, very little of that water will infiltrate into the ground because of the frost, so you do get more runoff this time of year.
• Q: For states that are no stranger to brutal winters and abundant snowfall, is the Corn Belt seeing above-average snowfall?
• A: Not really. I think the places in the central to western areas of the region have below-normal snowfall where others eastward have had what I consider typical. The further east you go, it has been colder and wetter. But I just don't think we've had a winter like this for a while, with the cold especially.
• It's way too early to say that we're going to end up below normal for the winter as far as snow. There's still a lot of time. Even for some places that are kind of lagging for snow and moisture this winter, from what we saw last year it can change in a hurry. When melt-off does come it could be messy.

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