Parts of Northern Michigan haven't seen rain in a couple of weeks
OTSEGO CO., MI -- For people who like the sun and can handle the rain staying away, the past few weeks have been great.
But for some farmers who desperately need the moisture, it's been everything but.
The lack of rain is slowly drying out some Northern Michigan fields.
While there are a lot of places in the State of Michigan that are complaining about getting too much moisture this year, there's a little band right through the heart of Northern Michigan that's not getting enough.
"I call this spearing, when you see the corn curling up like this and it's closing in on itself, it's a lack of moisture," explains farmer Ray Patterson.
Patterson's farm is located at the northern end of Otsego County and he says it's been a tough growing season.
“From feast to famine, at first, we get too much rain we couldn't get the crops in, and now, we can't get enough rain to keep them going," he says.
For two weeks, the sun has beat down on his field and the rain has skirted by to the north and the south.
“North of 72 to above Wolverine probably, there seems to be a band right across the state that seems to be getting no moisture now at all," Patterson says.
And he's dead on. National Weather Service Meteorologist Jim Keysor explains although averages in the area are close to normal during the first six months, a lot of that is attributed to a wet spring.
“The tap was turned off when we got to July and some areas have just not seen a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks," says Keysor.
And a map shows it best. A blue band stretches between M-72 and M-68 and shows traces of rain in the last two weeks, and if you take look closer, there are areas where absolutely no rain has fallen. He says it's simply bad luck.
“You don't do it to make crop loss, you do it to make the best crop you can get," says Patterson.
Patterson says there's no doubt yields will be down this year, and right now, he, like several other farmers, are doing the rain dance.
Patterson says if this field gets rain within the next couple of weeks, it'll save his crop.
But for those farmers, there could be good news. 7&4 Chief Meteorologist Mark Watkins says there could be precipitation in the near future.
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