If you spent a lot of time at the Atlantic beaches this past summer, you were probably griping about the cool and wet weather. For only the second time in the past 100 years, not a single 90 degree F day was recorded during July in New York City. The July average daily temperature was about 4 degrees F below normal, and rainfall was approximately 2.5 inches above normal. Just last year, there were 18 days over 90 F and two days above 100 F! In the Washington D.C area, this was the coolest July since 1918 and the coolest and wettest summer since 1972. In Baltimore, it was the coolest summer at BWI Airport since it opened in 1953. Only once did the thermometer crack the 90 F mark in Washington during July - that hadn't happened since 1906. Last year there were 22 days above 90. The average daily temperature was 5.5 F degrees below what is typically expected, and the rainfall was more than 2 inches above normal. While in the summer of 1999, sprinklers and air conditioners were hot commodities, this past summer, weed whackers and bug sprays were moving briskly.

At the same time that it was cool and moist in many of the eastern states and in the Mid-West, very dry, hot conditions prevailed out west. A dome or ridge of high pressure was nearly stationary across the western states for a good part of the summer, and as a result, it was a big year for wildfires. In the atmosphere, troughs are typically found adjacent to ridges. These troughs are areas of lower pressure and are often accompanied by unstable weather conditions that lead to clouds and storms. Over the eastern US, troughs were a persistent feature for much of July and August. Now the situation has been somewhat reversed. It has been warm and dry during October in the east, but it's been cool and rainy in the west - a big help to the tinder conditions that has existed for much of 2000. In Washington D.C. only .02 inches of rain fell during October - the second driest month recorded in over 125 years. The ridge and trough didn't exchange positions but rather the western ridge gradually migrated eastward and is now positioned over the eastern states. A characteristic of such ridges is that they're not easy to move, so storm systems tend to maneuver around them.

With most crops, when you have plenty of rain and enough sunshine in the spring and summer, the expectations are that the harvest will be bountiful. However, not all crops faired well this past summer. For example, vineyards require dry, sunny weather to produce the best grapes. In the Middle Atlantic area during July and August, road side stands and farmer's markets are usually loaded with ripe red tomatoes. Tomatoes need lots of sun to help them ripen, but gray skies this past summer meant that most tomatoes were vine green instead of red and juicy.

In general, though, most farmers are beaming over this year's harvest. For the dairy farmer, the lush pastures provided plenty of forage for cows, and it has been an extremely good year for corn in Maryland as well as for most all grain crops throughout the Middle Atlantic area. The expression "as high as an elephant's eye" was no exaggeration this year. In some places, corn stalks stood 12 feet high and 3 ears of corn were attached to each stalk. The corn is usually about 8 feet high and only 1 or 2 ears are produced on each stalk. Sufficient sunshine, cool temperatures and generous rains during the growing season led to a bumper crop in terms of bushels harvested - the best some farmers have ever seen. In Maryland, the record of 139 bushels of corn per acre in 1996 may be exceeded by this year's crop when the final numbers are tallied. By contrast, last year, the corn crop was one of the worst ever in the Middle Atlantic region.

Unfortunately for the farmers, the price of corn is down again this year. In Maryland, corn prices stood at about $2.00 per bushel. Just five years ago, a bushel of corn went for $3.65 per bushel, in 1997 the price was $3.00 per bushel and last year the price was $2.35 per bushel. So in order to make the same profit as they did three years ago, farmers needed to harvest 50% more corn than they did in 1997! That's a tall order. While the farmers are certainly pleased that Mother Nature cooperated this year, and there must have been be a good bit of satisfaction in seeing the corn seemingly growing before their eyes, it has to be disheartening not to be able to reap the benefits that the favorable weather provided.

As every farmer knows, farming can be a tough, unforgiving business. It the weather is too cool or too hot, too wet or to dry, the farmers may not make a profit, and isolated hail storms and wind storms can ruin a crop in one felled swoop. Even if the weather is just right during the growing season, rainy weather at harvest time may keep reapers in the barn and allow crops to rot in the field. If this, plus volatile market prices aren't enough to deal with, there may be problems with specially developed corn strains that affect a crops value.

In the Mid-West, for instance, some of this year's corn crop may have been contaminated with genetically engineered strains approved only for animal consumption. Special strains of corn, such as StarLink, are designed to contain a bacterium gene, which is toxic to certain insect pests that invade corn plants and can reduce yields. Though grain elevators may be bulging, if the genetically engineered corn was inadvertently mixed with the sweet corn we like to eat, it can only be used to feed chickens and pigs - these strains are not yet approved for corn that will find its way to grocery stores. This substantially decreases its selling price compared to what it could be if it were sold as corn that ends up in our breakfast cereal or on our dinner table.

It's no wonder there are fewer farms and farmers now than in year's past. It's not all that hard to understand why some farmers are selling their land to home builders. As one farmer said, "there's more money in growing houses than in growing corn." This maybe true, but it's sad nevertheless.

For more about this see the Washington Post for August 6, 2000 (Metro section) and the Metropolitan Washington Climate Review for June, July and August.