July, even with a couple days to go for the recordkeeping, turned out to be a record for month with regard to precipitation. Total precipitation for July to date is now 198 mm, the previous record over the last 56 years of records kept at the farm in Ormstown, was 182 mm set in 2004.
The Environment Canada weather station in Saint-Anicet recorded 192 mm and the station at L’Acadie (near St-Jean-sur-Richelieu) recorded 279 mm of rain for the same period. Wet is the word.
The average temperature held steady during the fourth week of the month, ending up at 22.3 degrees Celsius. With two cool days and nights forecast for the end of the month, the average temperature will likely end up close to the ch is pretty close to the normal for the whole month at 21.1 C. The month of July has only registered four days when the daytime high exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, and nighttime lows have only been moderately warmer than average so there should be no surprises by the end of the month.
Despite the average temperatures, the corn heat unit (CHU) count continues to climb ahead of average after a slow start in May. For the first four weeks of July there has been 796 CHU, which was a good bit higher than the prorated normal of 747 CHU based on 799 CHU for the entire month. Since the May 10th start date for the heat unit count, the total recorded is now 1825 CHU for the 2023 cropping season.
August is forecast to be close to average with the nighttime lows slightly above average but with only a few days with rain (yipee!). The first sweet corn of the season appeared on the market last week, the cobs are full-sized and quite sweet. The blueberries look amazing with all the moisture they have received and a full range of local vegetables are now available for farm stands and markets.
