Although there’s still a few days to go in October, the average temperature for the month continued to sit above normal by a full degree and a half. The average temperature now stands at 11.0 degrees Celsius, up from 10.5 C the week and still well above the average for the month of 9.4 C.
The thermometer has been going up and down like a yo-yo the last two weeks, with daytime highs reaching to the mid-twenties before dropping back down to the lower teens, and now forecast back above 20 C to close out the month. There have been a few frosts along the way, but not sufficiently cold to be classified as a killing frost (which will probably occur early in the morning of Monday, October 28, given the forecast low of -4 C).
As noted last week, the corn heat unit (CHU) accumulation has ended, with the total for the season starting on May 19 at 3399 CHU, which is close to 300 CHU above the average for the last 50 years. For those who managed to plant corn in the first half of May, the accumulated total will be about 3530 CHU.
The corn harvesting has started in earnest with combines active in a lot of fields. Test plots for seven varieties of corn have revealed excellent yields, ranging from 5.3 to 6.1 metric tonnes per acre, with surprisingly low moisture levels from 21 to 25 per cent on the cob.
There were just a few millimetres of rain during the last week, bringing the month-to-date total to 32 mm, which is just a third of normal. Despite the above-average rainfall during the summer months, the growing season (May to September) turns out to be average with about 90 mm of precipitation per month spread out over the six-month period.