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in his back yard. “It’s just part of the day.”
Besides the records of daily high and low temperature and precipitation, Mr. Wingfield usually adds “tidbits” about each day in the logbook he keeps.
Looking back over the past several years, he said, May has yielded more than five inches of rain each of the last three years; with 5.18 in 1987, 9.52 last year and 7.ti8 in 1989.
However, lest a pattern be discerned, he quickly added that last year’s abundent rain in May was followed by only 1.65 inches in June.
And this year, he added, though he heard many complaints about the rainy month of May, during the 19 days from May 18 to June 4, he recorded less than one-tenth of an inch of rain. “With sun and wind and temperatures in the 80's, rain was needed,” Mr. Windfield said.
And local farmers, who depend on the rain for their livelihood, agreed. Mrs. Harris said her 7.000 strawberry plants needed the rain to plump their fruit.
But too much rain can be a bane to farmers as well. Heavy downpours over several days with no sun to dry the plants can produce fungus on strawberries and many other developing fruits and vegetables. Hay crops can rot in the fields if it is cut but rain prevents it from being baled. .
June is not the time for prolonged heavy rains, however. Historically. Dr. Michaels said, “most of the rainfall in June and July will come from passing thunderstorms." creating locally spotty rainfall patterns.
That hit-or-miss pattern is unfortunate for farmers, since higher temperatures and near-constant breezes in the area quickly rob the soil of whatever moisture does reach it.
Dr. Michaels, whose office charts and forecasts seasonal trends in temperatures and precipitation, says the outlook is for both to be within the normal range for the season during the next several months.
However, he added, that doesn’t preclude the possibility of localized drought conditions. “With spotty showers, it’s no surprise to find one area drier than another." Such conditions are “typical” of Virginia.
Fluctuating temperatures are also common in this area. Though many residents complained that May’s temperatures were below average, Mr. Wingfield’s records show little deviation from the average over many years. He recorded a i high for the month of 87 degrees.
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