Weather pattern squelches summer

By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer

For area residents who gritted their teeth to get through a long winter with one of the worst ice storms in local history, followed by an abnormally cold and cloudy spring, enduring a cool, wet June has been depressing, to say the least.

It seems everywhere you go, from the Post Office to the supermarket, people are talking about the rainy start to summer 2009 and encouraging one another to remain optimistic that eventually, there will be a sunny break in the weather.

The sustained rainfall, which has meant a drop in business for farmers and contractors and postponed a host of outdoor activities, has certainly put a damper on the start to the summer — and the National Weather Service’s Web site indicates that it will slip into July, predicting rain today, rolling thunderstorms this weekend and scattered rainstorms into the middle of next week.

The increase in rainfall and predictions of flash thunderstorms have also prompted the service to institute a flash flood watch for Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties through Thursday night.

According to News 22 Storm Team meteorologist Brian Lapis, this June saw 6.53 inches of rain, the most since 2003, when climatologists recorded about 6.7 inches. The June record, set in 1982, was 10.41 inches, he said.

The reason for all the rain, Lapis said, is that for the last couple of weeks a jet stream to our south and low pressure systems to our east and west have generated a number of cool, almost winterlike storms that have kept much of the Pioneer Valley under cloud cover.

“There has been a lot of cloudiness, and the weather pattern we’ve had lately lends itself more to a wintertime pattern as opposed to a summer pattern,” Lapis said. “If people are feeling like we haven’t had summer yet, they aren’t out to lunch — this has definitely been an unusually cool and cloudy spring and summer so far.”

Although he expects today’s storm will bring the last significant rainfall of the week and is predicting a break in the weather in time for the Fourth of July fireworks, residents looking for several days of warm weather will likely have to wait until the middle of next week.

“I like our chances for being mostly dry on Friday with just a few scattered showers Saturday evening and a couple more on Monday and Tuesday and hopefully a high pressure system comes our way in the middle of next week,” Lapis said. “Typically things move from the west to east, and if you look west you see a lot of warm weather and eventually that will get here. It’s just a matter of time.”

Farmers strategize

June’s rainy weather has local farmers looking for a dry spell, and Dan Pratt, owner of Astarte Farm on West Street in Hadley, considering putting miniature life preservers on his eggplants to keep their heads above water.

“In our operation, which is a highly diversified market operation, the weather has been very hard on the tomatoes because many tomato diseases require a wet leaf ,and we have had a very long period of wet leaves,” Pratt said. “I’ve had some problems with my midspring broccoli because the water is literally resting on the mature broccoli’s head and that can start to rot it, but our garlic, leeks and onions are all prospering — I think they could grow in a swamp.”

Although there is little farmers can do but hope for a warmer middle and end to the summer season, Pratt said many keep vegetables in reserve to avoid the risks associated with planting all their produce at once.

“The kind of thing we do here, which most farmers are doing, is succession planting,” Pratt said. “Where you don’t put all of your plants out all at once, you stagger the planting so you can stagger the harvest and maybe get a break if you get bad weather.”

Contractors trudge on

All this wet weather has meant less work for local painting crews and landscapers and fewer customers for their suppliers, including Phil Dowling, owner of the Northampton Paint Center on North King Street, who said business is down 10 to 15 percent from what he would expect this time of year.

“It has been trying, to say the least,” Dowling said.

Wednesday’s storm, he said, was a classic example of what he has been dealing with so far this summer, with a rainy morning that saw patches of sunshine before turning into an afternoon downpour. Rainy weather, however, is something he said people who work outside have to be prepared for — and something his 30-year-old business has survived in the past.

“We have dealt with seasons like this; it’s not abnormal to have a lot of rain,” Dowling said. “But if we have two more months like this, that is our make-or-break season, and if the weather doesn’t change we are going to be in tough shape.”

Greg Omasta, owner and president of Omasta Landscaping, 265 Bay Road in Hadley, said this June has been one of the wettest he’s experienced in 31 years, and it has had a negative effect on every aspect of his business, from scheduling work to finishing it.

“It makes it much harder to get things done because we work with soils and plants, and if we put a lawn in for someone and it rains too much, it might take two days to dry out, and then our next job gets delayed by two days and the next person in line gets delayed by two days and so on,” he said.

Omasta has also noticed that the frequent rain showers and cloudiness have had a noticeable impact on his workers, who have to trudge on outdoors, regardless of the weather.

“When you’re working in it every day it can leave you feeling a little bit down and out,” Omasta said. “And then the sun comes out and you get a false sense of security, and before you know it starts raining again.”

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.