By Clint Thompson
The next three months are expected to be wetter than normal.
Pam Knox, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension agricultural climatologist, noted in the UGA Climate Blog that NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center predicts the July-September period to be wetter than usual.
“The rain that’s predicted to occur this summer is probably predicated on having an active tropical season,” Knox said.
She also said that farmers should not be fooled by the mostly quiet tropical season so far.
“Just because it’s been really dead so far with most of the action being in the eastern Pacific Ocean, that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way the rest of the season. In fact, some of our busier seasons have been seasons that started out pretty slow, like 2004,” Knox said. “Later in the season, everything started picking up. Last year was pretty odd because we had storms pretty early and storms pretty late, and there was nothing in the middle. That’s when you’re usually expecting the most storms.
“This year, I think the chances of us seeing a similar pattern where you get nothing during the most intensive time of the year, I don’t think that’s going to happen again this year. I think people are going to have to watch for things to pick up by mid-August and go on from there.”
It has been a rainy summer so far, as evidenced by the lack of drought conditions present across the Southeast, according to the July 10 edition of the U.S. Drought Monitor.