Published: July 01, 2007 11:44 pm         

WEATHER: Niagara region starts summer dry

By MARK KANE

ngedit@gnnewspaper.com

It does not take a meteorologist to notice that Niagara Falls has missed out on the rain that has fallen around Toronto and south of Buffalo.

The shades of brown grass, usually signs of the warm days of mid-August, have come out in full force as July begins.

Niagara County has seen little rain because of the of the temperature stabilization of Lake Erie, according to Joseph Pace, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

“The cooler waters of Lake Erie create a good southwesterly breeze off of the lake,” Pace said. “The breeze creates a shadow that prevents cloud coverage to the north of Buffalo.”

The shadow effect from Lake Erie created the sunniest month of May in the 117 years of record keeping in Buffalo with 84 percent of the daytime sunny, according to Pace. However, the sunny weather has taken away from rainfall.

The next threat of showers could come Tuesday or Wednesday. However, above average amounts of precipitation are expected the second week of July, according to Pace.

Since 1951, Niagara Falls International Airport has averaged 7.2 inches of rainfall in May and 8.4 inches of rain in June, according to the Base Weather Station for the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

This past May fell well short of that with 0.84 inch of rain, and June only saw 1.7 inches as of Friday night, the Air Force base said.

Local nurseries have been impacted but expect things to get worse as the summer progresses.

“We’re about average in terms of sales,” said Melissa Skorik, owner of Faery’s Nursery & Landscaping in Ransomville. “But if it stays this dry, sales will drop dramatically.”

The lack of rain has also had an impact on gardeners. Customers have been coming in more frequently wondering why their plants are dying, according to Skorik.

The dry weather has forced the ground to harden which makes the task of digging more difficult. Because of hard grounds, people are starting to irrigate before they make purchases, according to Skorik, who was forced to hire more staff to take care of her inventory.

“I need more staff to water the inventory so customers can purchase healthy plants,” she said.

Farmers in the area have also seen an impact from the dry spell. Corn, a crop that requires a lot of water, has been a concern since the dry weather began.

“We’re still going to have a corn crop this summer because of our irrigation system,” said Jeff Freatman, manager of Freatman Farms, which farms sweet corn in Lockport. “But the irrigation of our corn has prevented us from doing other work like planting and harvesting other crops.”

Freatman said that the farm’s irrigation system is lined up to help out during dry years. However, the process that usually starts in July was started in May this year.

“This is the earliest we’ve had to start irrigation,” he said.

Farmers of other crops, such as tomatoes and peaches, are far from being bothered by the dry weather.

“Years that are dry are usually vintage years because of quality of the product is so much better,” said Tom Tower of Tower’s Farm Market in Youngstown. “I have one of the nicest tomato fields I’ve ever seen this summer.”

Tower, whose main crops are tomatoes and peaches, said the dry spell has helped him because it means more sunlight for the crops, which is crucial for growing.

“We can adjust the way the crops are watered,” he said. “But we can’t control the amount of sunlight the crops receive.”