"Dry conditions draw warnings"

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, September 9, 2010:

Scott Miller is hoping for a hurricane.

The Doylestown-based landscaper says his business is down about 25 percent this summer, a direct result of a lengthening spell of hot and dry weather that has scorched lawns, triggered drought concerns, cut into local crop yields and prompted fire danger warnings.


Miller's lawn mowers have remained idle because grass isn't growing. He has landscaping jobs lined up, but they're on hold until the rain comes.

"We need a hurricane to come through," said Miller. "That's usually what bails us out late in the season."

Farmers, like landscapers, are also feeling the heat.

Yields of pumpkins, corn and hay are down, according to experts at Pennsylvania State University's Cooperative Extension in Bucks County.

Field corn and soybean harvests, both of which were started early because of the weather, will likely come in below average, too.

"It's one of those years where a couple of timely rains could have made it an outstanding year, but it will probably end up being a below average year," said Michael P. Fournier, the extension's executive director.

Scott D. Guiser, a horticulture expert with the extension, said ornamental trees and shrubs have reached a "critical point" and are badly in need of rain.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear they're going to get it.

The current 15-day period without rain is expected to continue through the weekend. Temperatures will be cooler over the next few days, topping out in the 70s today, but the sky will yield little in the way of water.

"There is a front coming through over the weekend, but it's weakening as it moves eastward and I don't think it will bring a whole lot of relief," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines.

For nearly two months, storms, such as last weekend's Hurricane Earl, have come and gone without impacting the region, the consequence of a ridge of high-pressure that has deflected the rain away, said Kines.

Since July 15, just 2.5 inches of rain has fallen on the Doylestown area, said Kines. That's about a third of the normal precipitation.

Between July 10 and July 14, 3.5 inches of rain fell, but that relative deluge followed on the heels of three straight months of below average precipitation and record-breaking warm temperatures, according to Richard Hanauer, a Furlong-based weather spotter for the National Weather Service.

From May through early September, the thermometer's red stretched to 90 degrees or more on 32 days in the Doylestown area, said Kines. Usually, only 24 days a year climb above 90 degrees in the Philadelphia region, the meteorologist said.

"We are concerned about the deteriorating conditions statewide," said Tom Rathbun, a press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

A drought task force consisting of DEP representatives, agriculture officials and other agencies such as the National Weather Service will be convened to decide whether to declare a drought watch or to recommend that the governor proclaim a drought warning, said Rathbun. The warning could lead to mandatory restrictions on water use.

Steven B. Long, chief of Bucks County's rangers, said water levels at local lakes and reservoirs are down, but have not approached a critical level. "Everything is down. It's a result of the prevailing conditions," said Long.

Lake Luxembourg in Core Creek County Park in Middletown appeared particularly low, said Christopher Edwards, a Bucks County spokesman. "The one side is almost depleted. It's several feet down on the other side," he said.

On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning, saying the parched ground, low humidity, temperatures in the 80s and gusting winds created prime conditions for brush fires.

In fact, dry conditions played a part in a number of brush fires in Bucks County, including one at a farm on Forest Road in Hilltown.

Wind carried ashes into mulch-dye crates at the farm, igniting them around midday, said Phil Meyers, chief of Dublin Fire Co. Firefighters extinguished the flames, and no damage to buildings or homes occurred, said Meyers. The ashes that sparked the blaze came from the remains of a controlled burn fire that had been done days earlier, the chief said.

While the weather pattern persists, residents should refrain from open burning, be careful with charcoal grills, responsibly dispose of cigarettes and stay away from fireworks, said Bucks County Fire Marshal Nick Rafferty.

Kines said that 1.74 inches of rain fell on Doylestown in August, only 45 percent of normal.

Hanauer, the weather spotter, said Furlong received 38 percent of its regular rainfall in the last 30 days and 84 percent of what is normal in the last two months.

Miller knows the economic reality those rainless days translate into for landscapers like him, and it isn't good.

"We needed rain three weeks ago," he said. "We really need the rain."