Pensacola, Fla.....driest March on record
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:42 am
http://www.weartv.com/news/Stories/marc ... ught.shtml
Pensacola is set to record the driest March on record.
So far, Pensacola has received 24 hundredths of an inch of rainfall this month...a normal March averages more than six inches of precipitation.
The dryness is beginning to affect area produce farmers.
Grower Bruce Holland says if his butter bean and pea fields don't get a little rain soon, he'll have to postpone some crucial plantings.
Bruce Holland/Farmer; "We'll have to wait a little while, we'll give it a little while, if we don't get any rain we may have to plant 'em and put the irrigations on 'em to get 'em up."
Holland says with farm fuel costs almost doubling in the last two years, running irrigation equipment greatly eats into already slim profit margins.
The area's largest row crops -- peanuts and cotton -- are generally planted in May, so farmers have some time to wait for rain, but the dryness is already beginning to make field work like discing difficult.
Pensacola is set to record the driest March on record.
So far, Pensacola has received 24 hundredths of an inch of rainfall this month...a normal March averages more than six inches of precipitation.
The dryness is beginning to affect area produce farmers.
Grower Bruce Holland says if his butter bean and pea fields don't get a little rain soon, he'll have to postpone some crucial plantings.
Bruce Holland/Farmer; "We'll have to wait a little while, we'll give it a little while, if we don't get any rain we may have to plant 'em and put the irrigations on 'em to get 'em up."
Holland says with farm fuel costs almost doubling in the last two years, running irrigation equipment greatly eats into already slim profit margins.
The area's largest row crops -- peanuts and cotton -- are generally planted in May, so farmers have some time to wait for rain, but the dryness is already beginning to make field work like discing difficult.