Ag Weather Impacts

Welcome to November, which is the beginning of what I call Solar Winter, because November, December, and January have the least amount of sunshine. So how did October treat you? Well, back at the first of the month, we were expecting October to be cooler and wetter than normal. Certainly, most farms were 3 to 5 degrees cooler than normal, but it wasn’t just this last week of chill that brought the averages down, because throughout October there were only about 7 to 9 days when the temperature was actually above normal. And then when you have 7 to 10 days with the temperature 10 to 20 degrees colder than normal, it’s hard to dig out of that hole. On the precipitation side, amounts tallied between a ½ and 1 inch, which was less than the usual amount, except close to normal for Yakima and Ephrata. Walla Walla and Dayton got an inch to inch and a quarter and that was also close to normal. Hermiston only had .18 for the least amount reported. Yesterday, NOAA’s climate prediction center updated their November outlook which predicts temperatures to average above normal and precipitation to total near the usual amount. It looks like the first half of November will see temperatures finally return to above normal with dry conditions continuing the first full week and then a chance for moisture during the second week. Generally, the time between sunrise and sunset is less than 10 hours in November and only 9 hour hours or less for December through early January. Like I said. Solar winter.