With the official start of summer on Sunday, the season's high temperatures and recent dry days could become a problem for farming in the area. Ohio's growing season started abnormally dry, causing concerns. But, as months went on, there was steady improvement locally. This led our area out of a drought monitor.
As we head into the hotter months though, Clint Schroeder, an Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator with the Allen County OSU Extension, says one concerning thing is the increasing drought in states northwest of us.
"We got to think about, our weather comes more from the west, is our pattern. So, when those areas are dry, there's less soil moisture, less evaporation," explains Schroeder. "That could lead to less rain for us later into the growing season, so it's something that we're keeping an eye on, definitely something to be concerned about."
However, Schroeder says our area is still on track to achieve the old saying "knee high by the 4th of July."
"We're definitely on pace to experience some of that growth, especially with the warmer temperatures that were forecasted for this weekend and in the coming week," he explains. "We're going to be in that range where it's going to be experiencing probably peak growth."
Schroeder says the last time Ohio experienced severe drought was in 2012, but that we aren't seeing any of that so far this year.
