The fourth week of May was a lot better for temperature than the previous one, but it still struggled to warm up significantly. The average temperature after four weeks of the month was 10.9 degrees Celsius, a wee bit warmer than the 10.1 C the week before but still not close to the 14.3 C that is the usual average for May. Even with the thirty-degree temperatures forecast for the last few days of the month, May will likely end up a degree or so cooler than normal.
There were 14 millimetres of rain – a nice soaking for the cereal and corn seeds that had just been planted during the week before, bringing the month-to-date total to 46 mm of precipitation which is well below average.
The corn heat unit (CHU) count started on May 11, and it too is running behind schedule with 253 CHU recorded as of May 27. The normal for May is 408 CHU. Some early-planted cereals and corn have sprouted out of the ground, but it has generally been a slow start with some of the plants looking more yellow than green, and growth has been slow in the cool and dry conditions.
The forecast for June is normal, with daytime highs mostly in the mid-twenties and night-time lows in the mid-teens, but not a lot of precipitation in the schedule. Good news for Desjardins Expo Ormstown, not so much for the crops.