Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 10, 1994 TAG: 9408100079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``It looks 10 times better than it did back at the first of July,'' said Alvin W. Blaha who, with his family, farms about 1,000 acres of soybeans, peanuts, cotton and grains near Dinwiddie.
Frequent rainfall in July - 12 days with thunderstorms, 16 days total with rainfall of more than 0.01 of an inch - helped crops recover from a brutal June.
``Basically, across the entire state, July was very wet,'' said Bryan P. McAvoy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Richmond.
The NWS office in Richmond recorded 7.46 inches of rain for July, a substantial increase over July 1993, which tallied just 1.91 inches. Petersburg recorded 7.79 inches of rain during July. Figures for July 1993 were unavailable.
Rainfall in June was 2.48 inches below the normal 3.7 inches.
July was hot, with average daily highs of 90.9 degrees and lows of 81.1 degrees, slightly above the 30-year average. But along with abundant rain, the heat produced strong crop growth.
``In Central Virginia and the southeast part of the state, we've had some real good rains, so the crops have drastically improved,'' said Kevin G. Harding, agricultural statistician with the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service.
``Most of the crops are in the fair to good category, with some in the excellent range,'' Harding said of the agency's most recent report on the state's crops.
The exception is corn, which received too little moisture during the July tasseling period.
The only other crop that approaches poor condition is flue tobacco in pockets where scattered showers were insufficient.
by CNB