September has become August – warm, sunny, and dry, with a few cool evenings.
After the deluge of precipitation in August, September is turning out to be quite dry with only 25 millimetres of rain to date, which is about one third less than normal. What rain there has been fell in the first week of the month, and with no precipitation in the forecast for at least another week, it will be the first dry spell this year stretching all the way back to February when there was hardly any rain and hardly any snow.
The average temperature after two weeks of September now stands at 17.1 degrees Celsius, a slight drop from the week before at 17.7 C but still a degree above the normal for the month, which is 16.2 C. Daytime highs and nighttime lows are forecast to be much warmer than normal for the remainder of the month, as exemplified by the temperatures for the Havelock Fair which hovered in the high 20s all weekend.
The corn heat unit (CHU) accumulation followed the above-average temperatures, adding on another 131 CHU to reach 276 CHU for the first two weeks of the month. This compares favourably against the prorated normal for the same period, 261 CHU, so it is looking good for exceeding the normal for the entire month of 559 CHU. The total for the season starting on May 19 is now just past the 3000 mark at 3004 CHU, and for those who managed to plant corn in the first half of May, the accumulated total will be closer to 3150 CHU.
All this good weather is reflected in the corn and soybeans beginning their dry-down processes; the maple trees are turning on their fall colours, and pumpkins can be seen at roadside kiosks everywhere. Corn silage is being harvested alongside forages – about the best haymaking weather we’ve had all summer. An initial and random test of corn cob moisture revealed a relatively dry 32 per cent, which was a pleasant surprise given all the moisture that has been received this cropping season.