Welcome rain has been falling in Connecticut this past week, but the pronounced drought of late summer and fall may have a lingering effect for years. Fruit crops and prized ornamentals may suffer from the historic lack of rain since September.
Total September and October precipitation measured only 1.85 inches and was the lowest measured in 93 years in Norfolk. Russell Russ, record keeper at the National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Station in Great Mountain Forest, said the second driest September-October period was 76 years ago, when rain measured 2.83 inches. The normal total for both months combined is 9 inches.
Russ reported that through Thanksgiving morning 2.48 inches of precipitation (rain and melted snow) had fallen in November, 2.10 inches below average. All told, precipitation at the weather station was 9.28 inches below average for the last three months.
The average annual precipitation for Norfolk is 53.12 inch. Because the summer brought an excess of rain—7 inches more than usual through August—Russ said the year’s total will probably be only a little below normal.
So, what effect will the topsy-turvy weather have on the region’s plant life? “It usually takes two years or so for major drought to show up in trees,” Russ said. “Fortunately, this dry spell happened during a time when trees are shutting down for the winter, so the recent dry conditions probably won’t be a major concern.”
Horticulturalist Nash Pradhan of Ginger Creek Nursery was not so sanguine. “It’s been a pretty weird year,” he said. “It started with so much rain that ornamentals were being affected by fungal issues. Plants that were in the wrong place were getting too much water and then someone turned the faucet off.”
Drought interrupts the cycle by which water moves through trees from the roots to the leaves. First finer, hair-like, roots, typically located close to the surface, die back. Eventually larger roots can die back as well. Drought-weakened trees are more susceptible to threats from insects and disease, the effects of which may show up months or even years after the drought.
Pradhan stopped transplanting anything as the ground dried out, and, although he had not done drip irrigation in years, he reverted to it this fall.
“I don’t know what will happen next spring as a result of the drought,” he said. “A lot of trees were impacted by pests and fungal issues when we had all the rain and then there was no rain for months at a time. Did the trees put all their energy into surviving? Buds were compromised by the drought and just dried out. Marginal trees probably won’t make it.”