June is often a dry month, but as of last Thursday the Berkshires had officially reached “moderate drought” according to the US Drought Monitor. We were on tenterhooks, waiting to see if a drier-than-usual June would lead to a full-blown summer drought, or if we would finally get the rain we so badly needed.
Well, dear reader, if you’ve been in the Berkshires for the past several days you know how that turned out! The rain we got over the weekend was a relief. Monday’s hail wasn’t exactly ideal, but the damage from the hailstones is still better than the potentially devastating effects of a persistent dry spell. We won’t know for sure until this week’s drought report whether this rainy spell has been enough to pull us out of the drought altogether, but we’re relieved and it seems promising.
We’ve weathered drought before, not too many years back. More recently, there was a season that began with a drought, and then somewhere around mid-July it started raining and just. didn’t. stop. The damp, cool weather was worse than a short-term drought, because as long as the water table doesn’t dip too low you can at least irrigate in a drought — but there’s not much to be done for lack of sun.
If we controlled the weather, it’d be warm and sunny every summer day, with gentle soaking rains two or three nights each week. We hope the weekend’s rain didn’t spoil your plans too much! Here’s to more beautiful, sunny days, with just the right amount of rain to fill your wells and make the plants grow.
