DlO—Lancaster Fannins, Saturday, February 7,1981 Wintertime drought setting dry records COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The mid-Atlantic area didn’t really set any all-time high temperatures during last summer’s hot weather. But it is currently in the midst of shattering records throughout the state in the wintertime drought category So says W. Joseph Moyer, state climatologist and agronomy department faculty member at the University of Maryland in College Park. Moyer’s records show that precipitation for December and January at 12 reporting stations averaged less than 25 percent of normal. Only Cumberland and Oakland, in Maryland’s two westernmost counties, were above this figure. Those two locations had precipitation figures at 29 and 28 percent of normal, respectively, thanks to heavy snowfalls beginning on December 19 Sur prisingly, the snow cover still persists in Garrett county, although the ice in Deep Creek CALL FOR ESTIMATES ON OUR LOW PRICED, HIGH QUALITY BUILDINGS Call or Write To U, WICKES LUMBER Rt. 272 & Garden Spot Road Ephrata, PA 17522 Lake was beginning to breakup jsew York state, across northern during the mild weather of late j\j ew Jersey, southeastern Penn- January. sylvama, the eastern two-thirds of Rain this week helped Maryland, and into central somewhat, but there still is a long Virginia way to go. South central Pennsylvania has Moyer reports the previous all- bg en suffering even more than tune low precipitation marks for Maryland, Moyer said, having December and January at most )j een declared an area of extreme Maryland locations were set drought according to the Palmer during the winter of 1955-56 At mdex, a measure of prolonged and Oakland, the record was set m abnormal moisture deficiency 1966-67, while at Hagerstown it was py the National Weather established in 1937-38 Service The oldest marks were The same index classifies most established in 1889-90 at College of Maryland east of Cumberland as Park, 1893-94 at Cumberland, and a severe drought area-slightly less 1871-72 at Frederick. . serious then the Pennsylvania All of the wintertime drought situation marks except the one at Cum- xhis winte r's lack of berland have now been broken, precipitation in Maryland means Moyer said that there is no recharging of I He noted the Maryland situation ground water supplies, already in is part of a national dry-weather short supply due to drought con pattern that extends all the way (htions which have persisted over from the Rocky Mountains in the m ost of the state since last sum- West to the Mid-Atlantic area in mer Again, only extreme western the East. The Mid-Atlantic drought Maryland escaped that situation, belt extends from southeastern Total precipitation at Oakland during 1980 was more than 2 5 inches above normal, while precipitation over the rest of the state was mostly 2 5 to 4 inches below normal. Upper Marlboro (Prince Georges county) and the nearby National Airport at Washington, DC , had precipitation totals that were more than 9 5 inches below noimal Does all of this infer a sum mertime drought even worse then the one last year 7 That’s possible, Moyer agrees On the other hand, look at what happened in the summer of 1956 after an extremely dry winter which set most of the previous drought records READ LANCASTER FARMING FOR COMPLETE AND UP-TO-DATE MARKET REPORTS COMPLETE BUILDING SYSTEMS FOR HORSE BARNS - ALL SIZES MERVIN MILLER 717-626-5204 Southcentral area suffering most Or 717-738-2401 717-394-9325 Moyer’s archives show that 1956 both corn-and soybeans set what rainfall was plentiful in June and were then new yield records for the extremely heavy in July. This state in 1956. The average yield for brought total precipitation for the soybeans that year was 25 bushels year up to normal for most of the per acre, compared with 21 bushels state and above normal both on the per acre in 1955. Meanwhile, the Eastern Shore and in extreme state’s average corn yield western Maryland ballooned from 40.5 bushels per Statistics from the Maryland acre in 1955 to 60 bushels per acre Crop Reporting Service show that m 1956. ★ RIDING ARENAS ★ STALL BARNS We Have A Skilled Crew Available For Erection if Desired Multiple Stabling for Riding Clubs, etc. • DAIRY • BEEF • POULTRY • SWINE * HORSE BARNS»ALL PURPOSE BUILDINGS Backyard Horse Barn
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