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rrom January to September 1990, Mr. Wingfield measured 35.45 inches of rain. For those same nine months in 1991, the measurement is only 29.12.
Mr. Wingfield measured 24.18 inches of rainfall last year between May and Spetember with July being the wettest month, measuring a whopping 7.09 inches of rainfall.
This year, the same months have tallied only 14.58 inches of rain with the wettest month being June, when 5.14 inches of rain fell in Sperryville.
Though June was the wettest month, late days in May and into June the temperatures rose well into the 90s, burning off any excess water.
Mr. Wingfield recorded eight days when temperatures reached 90 degrees or above for the months June to August—with no days in September in the 90s in 1990. This year, that figure more than doubled. May 1991 was one of the hottest Mays on recorded. June tallied five days with temperatures 90 or above, July chalked up another nine, August added 10 to the total and September chipped in two.
Since the first of June, Mr. Wingfield has recorded 26 days when temperatures have pushed the mercury to 90 or above.
“With all the heat, the constant breeze and the lack of rain, it’s no wonder the ground is cracked open in the backyard,” Mr. Wingfield said with disgust.
“We got a little bit of rain” early last week, Mr. Call added with a bit of the same disgust ringing in his voice, “but, it was a little bit too late.”
His Muskrat Haven Farms in Amissville is just one of the many farms in Rappahannock County that has taken the heat, dry weather and continual stirring of air over the past few months.
The Call farm, like other farms, has suffered.
“The last two months have been really doggone dry,” he said, adding without his extensive irrigation system, many things would not have been “kept alive.”
“With the irrigation, I’ve done fairly well,” he said, adding he has seen many who normally harvest their own peppers and tomatoes purchasing his produce.
Irrigation helped Ivan Hall at Sperryville Farms survive the dry heat too, though, unlike other years, his spring feed irrigation started to dry in the past few weeks.
“I water my flowers from the spring,” he said, explaining this year
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