Drought Report

With the extreme drought we experienced over the summer months, where do we stand now?

And what does this mean for our future?

18 news reporter shelby clark has details for us tonight.

Lack of rain combined with warmer than usual temperatures were to blame for an extreme drought during the summer months.

Since then, the drought has lessened but we're not quite out of the woods as many are still seeing the effects.

Shona ort: "financially, a lot of farmers who produce their own forages such as dairy farms, they are going to be a lot more negative in their finances because they had to buy in so many grains and forages like silage and haylage and so forth which they normally produce."

Lower production and loss of money are not the only signs of drought farmers will likely see.

Shona ort: "for perennial crops, like in pastures and for fruits, it might be the plants might be more stressed.

They might not come back as well this year.

As a result, they might have to replants parts in their orchard, their berry patches, their pastures, and so forth.

That depends on how hard of a winter we get, and how much rain we get as well."

Shelby clark: "rain in the forecast has helped us out some, but we are still not quite caught up to what we normally see by this time of the year."

Ted champney: "the pattern has shifted somewhat, and fall crops across the central southern tier and the finger lakes have had above normal rainfall.

So, that has helped the drought lessen in severity."

Right now, most of the twin tiers is in either a moderate drought or abnormally dry area.

This is some sort of relief, though.

Ted champney: "this drought is long term.

So, it started back in late winter.

We are still several inches below normal for the last 12 months or