A farmer’s weather prediction

Editor’s note: When I joined the Good in Every Grain team last year, I learned something very important on my first day: farmers really like to talk about the weather. Like, really like it. Because their livelihood depends on it, farmers aren’t usually satisfied with just checking the Weather Network in the morning–every farmer I’ve met has their own favourite theory about how to tell when it’s going to rain (and I’m always surprised how often they’re right). Here’s a bit of farm wisdom from our very own Laura Ferrier. [–MC]

We all know how important weather is to farming and growing crops, right? Weather, along with a number of other compounding factors, can make or break a crop. Farmers check the weather multiple times for daily forecasts or long range forecasts, each and every day. But what if you want to know what the next three months’ weather might hold, without relying on the Weather Network’s hypothesis? What if you could find out yourself?

My grandma (101 years young) always says that you can determine what the upcoming seasonal weather might be like by paying careful attention the 3 days over a season change. This past weekend, it changed from spring into summer; by watching the day before (June 20th), the day of (June 21), and the day after (June 22), we can have a good idea of what the upcoming 3 months are going to hold weather wise. The weather over these 3 days, in much of the province, was hot, humid and dry, with very little rain. According to my grandma, that’s the kind of summer we can expect. Let’s see if she is right. I always pay attention to these 3 days over any seasonal change, and I find that it often holds up.