Ag Weather Impacts

Ag Weather Impacts

The month of June is in the books and although precipitation was well below normal on most Columbia Basin farms, temperatures were near normal. In fact, most farms only reached the low to mid 90s for the hottest day. The last year we had not reached 100 degrees during May or June was 2014. Now we ARE looking at a warming trend, bringing 95 to 100 degrees by Thursday, then followed by a weak dry cold front Thursday night. Look for a stronger dry cold front to drop temperatures back to near normal Saturday before rebounding back to the 90s early next week. The dry weather pattern will continue to be good for hay curing and early winter wheat combining. You can plan on humidity to drop below 60 percent from around 7 am to midnight. The low humidity will cause high fire danger in the wheat fields. On the other hand, Alfalfa balers will find only only a few early morning hours with humidity high enough to bale without leaf shatter. Spraying conditions will be favored by lighter winds this afternoon into Friday and then again Sunday. Plan on weekly Crop water use to be about 2 inches for alfalfa, potatoes, and corn and an inch and a half for lawns. Well, We're ¾ of the way through the water year that began October 1, and most farms are sitting at least 90 percent of normal precipitation, except drier in the Yakima and Selah area. Much of recent dryness has been Since May and I don't expect much recovery in July.
Previous ReportAg Weather Impacts
Next ReportAG Weather Impacts