Thunderstorms dispel hot, dry, smoky weather — now, crops ‘want sunshine’ again 'to make those plants happy'
Farmers are welcoming this week’s heavy rainfall around the eastern and central Interior, especially after last week’s hot dry weather. The mix of sun and moisture bodes well for this fall’s harvest.
Last week, much of the Interior was hot and dry and blanketed in wildfire smoke. This week, rain moved in, accompanied on Tuesday by lots of thunder and lightning.
“Oh yeah, definitely – we had a really pretty broad area of strong thunderstorms, for sure,” says Jim Brader, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fairbanks.
Brader said nearly an inch of rain fell Tuesday in Delta Junction, along with some hail, and about an inch and a half in the northern Alaska Range foothills. Fairbanks and Nenana both got about a half inch. He expects the region will get another half-inch by the end of today before it tapers off.
“We’re looking for hotter and drier conditions for Friday into the weekend,” he added, “and we still will have some isolated thunderstorms. But we’re not expecting as widespread area of showers.”
That’s all good news for the area’s farmers, says Phil Kaspari, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service agent for the Delta Junction area.
“I’m sure those folks are just over the moon!” he said. “It’s a blessing.”
Kaspari says the rain came at just the right time, after most farmers got their seeds in the ground – especially those who grow grains like barley that are harvested with a combine.
'Early in the growing season'
“It is early in the growing season,” he said. “The crops that have been planted for combining are looking good.”
He says some farmers who are late with their spring planting will have to wait a few days ‘til their muddy fields dry out enough to bring in their tractors and farm implements.
“It is definitely going to slow down progress for those producers who are still planting the annual forage crops, like forage oats.”
Farmers in the Mat-Su, the state’s other major agricultural area, also have been enjoying the benefit of planting-season precipitation. That, and an early onset of breakup in both the Interior and Mat-Su bodes well for this year’s harvests, says Jodie Anderson, who directs the UAF Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension.
“Most of us have had a pretty gentle breakup,” she said, “which is great news.”
Anderson works out of the Palmer-based Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center.
“It didn’t happen super-quickly,” she added, “so we didn’t have lots of standing water in most places. And then it turned into a fairly wet spring.”
So far, so good, says Anderson. And if all the rain is followed by warm, sunny days, many of the state’s farmers could be in for an epic harvest this fall.
“Farmers, this time of year, they want moist soil and they want sunshine, because those two things are really going to make those plants happy and germinate and get up and start moving as fast as they can.”
Anderson says if ideal conditions continue into the fall, some farmers should be able to get two harvests this year of crops like oats -- once in early July, more than a week earlier than usual, and again in September.
