Palm | Kelapa Sawit

SAO PAULO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Irregular rains will fall over Brazil's drier-than-usual central soy belt in coming days before returning to the country's soaked south at the end of the week, local forecaster Somar said on Wednesday.

A cold front hit No. 2 soybean-producing state Parana and No. 3 soy state Rio Grande do Sul over the weekend. Parts of both received more than 60 millimeters (2.5 inches) of rain in the past three days, bringing October rains above average.

Warmer Atlantic Ocean waters have largely kept those rains from pushing north into top soy state Mato Grosso, but light rain should fall over the state in the next few days, Somar said in its daily weather bulletin.

The central part of Mato Grosso has received 139mm of rainfall so far in October compared with an average of 155mm for the entire month. In southern Mato Grosso just 41mm have fallen, putting that region 69 percent below the October average.

The southern part of Mato Grosso typically plants later than the central farms in the state, which is often the first region to plant.

The bulk of Brazil's soybeans are planted in late October and early November. Analysts so far are maintaining their forecasts for a record crop of around 82 million tonnes, which should allow Brazil to leapfrog the United States in soybean production for the first time.

Local analyst Safras e Mercado even said it had raised its estimate to 82.5 million tonnes from its July projection of 82.3 million tonnes on Monday due to farmers' expanding the area planted with soy. The firm said it was too early to worry about below-average rains in Mato Grosso.