The average temperature was normal for November in Ormstown with 2.6 degrees compared to: last year 5.1 //ten year average 2.9 //fifty year average 2.3 // warmest 2011 plus 5.8 //coolest 2019 minus 1.5. Precipitation was also in the normal range with 58 mms. (2.3 inches) of rain and 11 cms. (4 inches) of snow which produced a total of 69 mms. or 2.7 inches of water.
Harvesting progress of grain corn and soybeans has been slow due to the extremely wet ground conditions caused by excessive rain during the month of October followed by the 14 days with new precipitation in November. This left little time to dry out the ground or the plants. Crop yields for the most part were extremely good which was typical on Eastern Ontario cropland as well.
The ability to harvest the crop this year can largely be credited to the very wide floatation tires on combines, grain buggies, and manure spreaders which enabled the machines to continue to complete the task without creating too many deep ruts. In comparison, I recalled one year when a large amount of rain fell in the month of August and our harvesting was completed using a one row corn picker pulled by a tractor equipped with half-tracks leaving a terrible mess. My paper weather records would not spit out that year but my failing memory said it was after I was married (?) and before the farm was tile drained (1977). That narrowed down the period enough that I was able to verify that the year was 1972. Not only did Ormstown receive 7.26 inches in August, it turned out to be the wettest year on record in 55 years accumulating 48.7 inches of rain and melted snow.
The preliminary estimate for total precipitation for 2021 will be below normal but with 9 of the last 35 years actually being drier.
Peter finlayson
