The third week of May was definitely a rough one for some farmers and gardeners as not just heavy frost but a good dose of freezing descended over much of southern Quebec. The nighttime low in the early hours of Thursday morning, May 18th, dropped to -7.5 degrees Celsius at ground level, killing a lot of the flowers and fruit buds on strawberries, blueberries, apples and grapes.
There was ice on the water tub that morning and there were three mornings during the week where the nighttime low dipped to at least -1.5 C. Asparagus growers lost much of the crop that had emerged from the soil although the stems still below the soil surface will likely survive. Producers are reporting significant crop losses ranging from 20-50% depending on location, some may lose their entire crop.
The average temperature by the end of the third week of May was 10.1 C, a significant drop from the 12.5 C from the two weeks before. The normal average temperature for the month is 14.4 C so May will definitely be a cool one as the forecast is for below normal temperatures for the rest of the month..
There was 7.6 mm of rain, a nice soaking for the cereal and corn seeds that had just been planted the week before, bringing the month=to-date total of 30 mm of precipitation, which is well below average.
The corn heat unit (CHU) count started on May 11th, with 153 CHU recorded as of May 20th. The corn planted on May 7th has already sprouted out of the ground.
