The start of May has brought some questions to the minds of those beginning to get their yearly share of crops into the ground. This year as Habersham County is looking to the warm summer, concern over the temperature of the ground has been a topic of discussion.
Steven Patrick, the coordinator at the University of Georgia’s Habersham County extension for Agriculture and Natural Resources, noted that frost could still be a threat until Mother’s Day. “Soil temperature and what keeps holding people back is you keep getting these close to 32 and close to frost events where things just aren’t turning on like you think they should, or possibly getting damaged,” Patrick said.
He also mentioned that the ground temperature is not what he is looking at right now.
“The ground temperature thing is where people try to slow people down that are trying to plant Good Friday or before,” Patrick said. “If the soil temp isn’t in there in March and April, you’re definitely ruining yourself. The locals here always talk about Blackberry Winter. It sounds like a joke, but until the blackberries quit blooming, you don’t want to put any warm-season annuals in the ground.”
Patrick said the rainfall amount over the last five years has been anything but dry.
“It’s been a lot more than normal. When we do get a normal summer, people are going to panic over drought,” Patrick said. “We’re nowhere close to normal rainfall. The climatologist at UGA claims we are gonna have cool, wet May, then transition into above average temperatures for the summer.”
Above-average temperatures, according to Patrick, could lead to loss of moisture in the ground throughout the summer. “Normally, we’ve been getting 100 inches of rain (per year); if we drop back to 80, people will think it’s the end of the world. Really, dropping below (80) would be drought conditions.”
If there is a lack of rain for a couple of weeks, Patrick said that drought-resistant plants are the way to go. “Drought resistant means that it could completely die back to the ground or drop its leaves and put right back out when it rains. Drought resistance doesn’t mean it’s not gonna look bad when the drought weather comes,” he said. “That’s the looming thing for most folks. We’ve got a lot of hay that’s overmature that people haven’t been able to cut because it’s been so cool.”
According to the National Weather Service, the average temperature for May 2022 was 69.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The total amount of rainfall was 4.47 inches. In May of 2021, the average temperature was 58.4 degrees Fahrenheit, with a total of 4.06 inches of rain.