Valley floor fast approaching drought conditions

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

The hot, dry weather we have been experiencing so far this month – and through much of June as well – has the local farming community more than a bit concerned.

“Ideally, crops should have an inch to an inch-and-a-half of rain a week in the midst of the growing season,” says Greg Webster of Webster Farms in Cambridge. “We don’t ever get that much, but this year we’re way off.”

Webster helps track weather conditions for Environment Canada and said, “we’re in a significant moisture reduction situation. We’ve had only slightly more than 30 mm of rain in the past six weeks and even in May, there wasn’t an excessive amount.”

The dry conditions have been limited mostly to the Valley floor. “The weather patterns tend to follow the North and South Mountains. Sometimes they miss us altogether,” Webster said.

For example, “last week there were thundershowers. Some people got up to 14 mm of rain. Others, like us, only got two.”

Evaporation becomes a problem

Asked if farmers are dealing with a drought situation, Webster said, “as far as the Valley floor is concerned, yes. It might not be as bad at higher elevations and in other parts of the province that have gotten more rain.”

Mix in high humidity and a drying wind and evaporation becomes a problem. “You take 32-degree heat, a humidex of 40 and a warm wind, and you can have close to 30 mm evaporation loss each day. We can’t even attempt to apply as much water as we’d need.”

Normally, summers are hot in the Valley, but the bulk of the heat occurs in late July and early August – not a month earlier, like it has this year. “We haven’t had a summer this dry this early in probably 8-10 years,” Webster says. As a result, the berry and vegetable crops his family grows “are starting to get into a bad situation.”

Moreover, the lack of moisture is having a compounding effect. In terms of strawberries, “the fruit is ripening sooner than normal, it’s ripening under stress, and it has been too hot to pick. It’s going to slice a week out of the middle of our season. We’re using irrigation on our raspberries and irrigating more frequently, so they might be okay.”

Irrigating bean crop already

Webster and his brothers “are irrigating our dry bean crop already, which is very unusual for here in Nova Scotia. It happens a lot out West, but rarely east of Ontario.”

Irrigation is normally done in August if required, but this year, the irrigation is “a good two-and-a-half weeks ahead of schedule. We felt we had to do it or lose them.”

Farmers like Webster are keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, both short-term and long-term. When we spoke Thursday, there were showers in the forecast, but “only about 5-10 mm at best.

“We need a good inch, inch-and-a-half. Anything less is just a tease,” he said. “We can only hope that even if we don’t get the rain we need, at least it will cool down a bit.”

April, May and early June weren’t too bad, and parts of the province had a cooler and wetter spring. Other parts of the province “have gotten rains that have gone around us.

“The Valley is the main area that’s suffering now and the scary thing is it’s earlier than normal. If it goes on for a couple more weeks, it’ll be even more serious. Hopefully it’s not the start of another 4-5 year cycle.”