Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993 TAG: 9307290201
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIS LENGTH: Long
"It's a little drier than it's been since I've been in business," Turman said this week.
Turman, 67, has been farming in Floyd County's Indian Valley for 43 years.
His pasture grass also is drying up. But he is not suffering alone.
This summer, a devastating agricultural drought has struck the Southeast, including parts of Virginia, even as flooding on a record scale has hit the Midwest.
But now there are signs that relief - or at least a temporary respite - for both sections of the nation may be on the way.
The persistent weather pattern that brought flooding and drought appears to be breaking up, Chip Knappenberger of the state climatologist's office in Charlottesville said Wednesday.
A dip in the jet stream over the Midwest and a ridge over the East appear now to be moving eastward. The movement of the jet stream - a high-altitude, rapid river of air along which storm systems travel - should bring relief to both sections of the country.
In the next couple of days, Virginia should see a return to cooler, more normal summer temperatures and improved rainfall conditions, Knappenberger said.
The hitch is, it's impossible to predict how long the improved weather pattern will last, he said.
The lack of rainfall in the Southeast already has led South Carolina and Maryland to declare statewide drought disasters, making them eligible for federal drought assistance. Several Virginia counties have made similar declarations.
In the Roanoke and New River valleys and surrounding counties, the drought has been scattered, depending on where the summer's thunderstorms have passed. Even within individual counties, the drought can be erratic.
"In this county, it's yes and no," Floyd County Extension Agent David Gardner said when asked if the county was going through a drought.
"The rain has been so spotty, we've got areas that it's burned up and others that it's OK."
Montgomery County has had more rain than some nearby counties. But beef producer Bill Greear of the Riner community said it's been dry there. If the pastures where his cattle graze don't get rain in the next week or two, he'll have to start feeding the cattle.
On the positive side, however, Greear said the dryness has benefited his wheat crop, which could be ruined by too much rain this time of year.
There's no drought in the Callaway section of Franklin County, dairy farmer Cline Brubaker reported. Since the first of July, 6 inches of rain have fallen on his farm.
But it's dry in the southern part of the county near the Henry County line, greenhouse operator Ed Mitchell said. Still, it's not as dry as the drought years of 1977 and 1983, he said.
Billy Turner, who farms with his family in the Otter Hill section of Bedford County, said that - before a good rainfall this week - if someone had dropped a match, his front yard probably would have burned.
His corn crop has been ruined and he's had to cut it all for silage; it's been several years since it's been this dry, Turner said.
But while he's dry, the northern part of the county has had rain, Turner said.
Farmers in some parts of Virginia are seeing good crop conditions, and others are facing crop failure, said Jim Lawson, deputy state statistician for the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service. The agency rates 36 percent of the state's cropland "very short" in topsoil moisture, 54 percent "short" and 10 percent "adequate."
Long periods of 90-degree days have exacerbated the drought conditions, Lawson said. During one 15-day period, the temperature rose above 90 degrees every day.
Still, plenty of rain fell in Virginia during the spring. And even with the summer's dry weather, the yearly precipitation level is near normal. That means that ground-water levels and spring-fed ponds are not a problem, Lawson said.
On the other hand, farm ponds that collect surface runoff and are used for watering livestock have started to drop.
The wet spring gave farmers a good first cutting of hay, but their second cutting will suffer because of the lack of rain. Farmers also face a loss of both quality and tonnage in the corn they raise to feed their livestock.
The statistics service rates 42 percent of the state's corn crop as "poor" and 45 percent as "fair."
Farmers will have to buy feed to offset what's lost to drought. But because of the Southeastern drought and the Midwestern flood, feed is going to be in short supply this fall and the prices high, Lawson said.
The most severe rainfall shortage in Virginia has been in Southwest Virginia. The drought there threatens the burley tobacco crop, which could be stunted if the hot weather forces it to mature early.
But in the past week, Knappenberger said, the drought conditions in Southwest Virginia have improved from "severe" to "moderate." In Tidewater and Northern Virginia, the drought is rated as "moderate," and in the Eastern Piedmont and Central Shenandoah Valley it's considered "mild," he said.
by CNB