| The Breakroom > The Water Cooler |
| 2015 Bernardston MA (US) Engine and Tractor Show -- May 23-24 |
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| vtsteam:
Thanks Rob! We had another drought maybe 4- 5 years ago but it sure didn't start this early -- more like late June,/july so I'm worried. Then it didn't rain for 2 months, and we were without water for much of that. Broad Brook dried up completely and all the fish died. I hadn't seen that in the dozen years we'd been here. It normally flows year-round. Iron casting is out now because of the outdoor burn ban. Funny, when I first built the iron furnace and wanted to test it out, it seemd to rain every day for weeks, and I couldn't because of standing water all around! Dave, that would explain it, because this is definitely abnormal weather we're getting. This is temperate forested land, without extremes of weather, usually. I sure hope they are wrong about the coming winter!!! |
| tom osselton:
Looks like you will have to cast with propane under the barbecue laws. We haven't had that much rain up here either. |
| awemawson:
Steve, I feel for you with the lack of rain - hope it comes soon. We went through a few weeks of no rain just as the temperatures were rising enough for the grass to start growing (8 deg C), and for this reason our grass is nothing like as lush as it would usually be this time of year. The rains did come eventually but the delay has had it's effect. |
| vtsteam:
The hay is all heading out at half height now, Andrew. I talked to a local farmer at the show. He said it was hurting. This is dairy country, and only small family farms hanging on. When I was young in the late 50's they used to say Vermont had more cows than people. There are probably 10% of those dairy farms left now. The amazing thing to me is this drought has happened so quickly. Seems like we just had 4 feet of snow on the ground, it melted and we had mud season as usual. Just a few weeks later all the water is out of the ground. May just isn't a drought month! |
| DMIOM:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on May 25, 2015, 04:22:49 PM ---......The amazing thing to me is this drought has happened so quickly. Seems like we just had 4 feet of snow on the ground, it melted and we had mud season as usual. Just a few weeks later all the water is out of the ground. May just isn't a drought month!.... --- End quote --- Steve that's possibly a similar issue to us - where in your case the underlying soil has got less water in than usual. Here in the Isle of Man we've recently noticed unusual variations in the height of the water table. Prior to this year, we've had a couple of very wet springs with areas flooded where my 96 year old Father can never remember being waterlogged - the Northern part of our farm is relatively sandy, so it doesn't hold the water of its own accord, and it wasn't just surface run-off either, it was the overall ground water table rising - the winter ground water level was at least 6" and at times we think nearer 12" higher than the normal winter peak. The trouble is that whatever little drying there is in winter didn't really make any impression on the whole soil-borne reservoir, and there were parts of fields that, for the first time in living memory, never dried up completely in summer. Then, in early Autumn last year (2014) we had a wet spell and the water in the fields was quickly back up to/beyond the levels we'd expect in March after a wet winter, not September! - then, things very slowly dried out again over the winter....... Whatever the cause of global warming, the extra water in the atmosphere is definitely increasing climate instability & bringing more extreme swings. Dave |
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