Are we in for a hot summer?

It’s officially summer! This is a great time of year when people are taking vacations, getting outside, and enjoying the beautiful weather. Summer in Ontario can be tricky- some years it’s hot, dry, and sunny. Other years it can be wet, cool, and humid. The weather forecasts is something a lot of Ontarians spend their time looking at – who wants crummy weather during their summer vacations?

For #YourFarmers, this forecast can also be an indication of how well their crops are going to grow. Ideally, farmers want “perfect weather” when growing grains. Hot, sunny with timely, abundant (but not too much) rains are the perfect ingredients to a perfect growing season.

What can we expect this year?

Well, hard to say. A lot of Ontario had a great spring- warm, sunny with timely rains. But certain areas also had a wet spring. As for summer forecasting for the entire province, a lot of meteorologists are predicting a hot, sunny summer with a lot of summer storms. Of course, as Ontario is a large province (with 6 million acres of grains planted here alone!) some parts of the province can experience different weather and forecasts than other parts.

What does this mean for grain growing?

With this year’s predicted forecast, a hot sunny, stormy summer, grain produce could be impacted in many diverse ways.

Too much hot/sunny weather could lead to drought conditions, and stressed crops that are looking for water.

Too much stormy weather could lead to a variety of things- crop damage due to violent storms, excessive rainfall in short periods of time which isn’t able to be absorbed by the soils. Lastly, if we get a lot of wet, humid weather, this could lead to crop diseases.

Either way, what happens this summer to the growing grains will directly impact how well the barley, corn, oats, soybeans, and wheat plants grow. Ontario grain farmers will be a close eye on their weather apps, the horizon, and their growing crops over the few months.