Dalhart Weather Review
(Mar 31 - Apr 6)
by Aaron Graves
Spring planting is just beginning, and this year's crops are getting a helping hand from old man winter. Dalhart saw 34" of snow over the past few months.
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| Kerry Todd |
"It helped tremendously with soil moisture reserves for summer crops," Kerry Todd said when I asked him about this year's local ag outlook. "At this time we are starting off better than the previous two years as we do have better soil moisture reserves as well as our pasture grasses are greening up due to the winter moisture. Based on moisture and prices summer crops look to be planted on about the same amount of acres as they have been the last few years."
Oats were planted in March. Corn and alfalfa are about to go in the ground. It's still early in the season, with less than 1% of planting done, Todd said. It will peak during the first ten days of May.
"Keep in mind, though," Todd cautioned, "we have yet to have an average rainfall year since 2010 and will need something more than average to make up for the drought we are in."
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True enough. March left us high and dry, with only 0.08" of precipitation recorded at the airport. No rain has fallen the first week of April either. Non-irrigated winter wheat, which benefited from the snowfall, is suffering again, Todd said.
We saw high temperatures in the 80's over the past week, the hottest day being April 1 with 86 degrees. A blustery cold front kicked up the dirt and cooled us into the 50's on April 3.
March 2015 ended with 0.08" of precipitation, some of it from 0.8" of snow. This fell 1.09" below normal for March. Our year-to-date total precipitation is 3.39", 1.10" above normal as of April 7.
Updated forecast as of Apr. 10 ~ We have a chance of rain over the weekend with some strong thunderstorms possible. Keep an eye on the forecast. Check www.weather.gov/ama for the latest.
High and low temps the past week
Mar 31: 83, 42
Apr 1: 86, 39
Apr 2: 82, 43
Apr 3: 55, 37
Apr 4: 67, 27
Apr 5: 83, 41
Apr 6: 84, 39
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