So, you think you’ve had enough rain in the last few weeks? The Valley has had two months’ worth of precipitation in just three weeks, but other nearby areas have had more… and then there’s Nova Scotia, where some locations received as much as 250 millimetres of rain in one day.
Total precipitation here for July to date is now 158 mm – that’s about twice the normal monthly rainfall for the area. Next door, at the Environment Canada L’Acadie weather station, they have recorded 269 mm of rain for the same period.
The average temperature has been declining slowly. For the first three weeks of the month it lies at 22.5 degrees Celsius, down from 22.8 C the previous week, but still higher than the normal for the whole month which is 21.1 C. July has only registered four days when the daytime high exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, and night-time 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 three weeks of July there has been 608 CHU, which was a good bit higher than the prorated normal of 567 CHU based on 799 CHU for the entire month. Since the May 10 start date for the heat unit count, the total recorded is now 1637 CHU for the 2023 cropping season.
The weather has been dominated by forceful thunderstorms which have flattened crops in localized patches. There was hail reported between Ormstown and Howick last week, but generally the heat and moisture has brought the crops along well. The first sweet corn of the season has appeared on the market, and the blueberries look amazing. A few fields of cereals have been harvested, which is quite early given the 2023 season, but those making hay – or trying to – haven’t been so lucky.