While there are still a few days to go before the end of 2021, a quick look at the year to date statistics shows that most of the region was warmer than normal for the year as a whole. The wettest areas were generally also the coolest due to the combination of wet soils and more cloud cover. The precipitation varied a lot across the region. The wettest areas reflected a variety of weather events that passed through the area, including rainfall from several tropical storms and hurricanes that passed near us. Areas with a lot of rain had trouble getting fieldwork done, saw a lot of fungal diseases, and had slower than normal development of some crops like corn and pecans that require sunlight. Drier areas showed the development of drought by the end of the year. Some crops benefited from the drier conditions due to more sunlight and fewer diseases. I’ll do an update in early January.
