News Weather
Soaking wet month plague land work
In many places, May will be a pretty wet month with twice the amount of precipitation on average. If you want to sow, plant or mow, you have to steal the moments between showers. The Northern Netherlands and the Groene Hart suffered the most precipitation.
The first half of the month has barely passed and we can already speak of a soaking wet month. The weather map is already turning dark green in several places. Because there are sometimes local heavy showers, they are usually not included in the maps. That is how it happened in South Limburg last Friday. Over the weekend, more to the north, sometimes heavy showers fell.
downpours
There is an average of 56 millimeters of precipitation in this month. This year it is already 80 to 90 millimeters in places. The weather map of Hetweeractueel even shows 1 spot of 168 mm. So far the least rain has fallen in the southwest and it also remained relatively dry in the southeast. At our southern neighbors the rain was also very scattered. It is especially wet in the west. There is also talk of a very wet May.
It is difficult to say how much damage these showers have caused. Last week, livestock farmers and contractors tried with all their might to get rid of the first cut of grass. This was successful in many places, although Saturday was no longer a workable day in most places. Sometimes an unexpected shower fell in the mowed grass.
Small 10% to plant
A considerable area of potatoes still has to be planted, especially in the north of the Netherlands. Along the entire Wadden coast, this mainly concerns seed potatoes and in the northeast, starch potatoes. Aviko Potato estimates the area still to be planted at around 8%. According to them, just under 10% still needs to be planted in North Holland. Elsewhere in northwestern Europe, planting is almost complete. Only in our country not all machines can go into the shed.
The late planting date does not have to be a disaster for seed potatoes, as long as growing weather follows quickly. Precisely the absence of a higher temperature is what is currently preoccupying growers. The potato market is also responding to this, with a firmer undertone and higher physical prices. The average maximum temperature for May is 15 degrees, while the multi-year average is 18,3 degrees.
Temperature average
The rest of this month will remain highly volatile. This has to do with the jet stream that is above our region. Until the end of May, the weather forecasts take into account 50 to 100 millimeters of rain, mainly due to heavy local showers. The real cold has disappeared and it remains between 15 and 18 degrees, so reports Agroweer.
We will probably have to wait another 2 weeks for warmer weather. The weather forecast takes into account that warmer air from southern Europe will come this way with gusts. This increases the chance of thunderstorms. Continued warmer weather is also expected for early June. Perhaps only then will the next good time come for the land work. Until then, it will continue to bite.
Niels van der Boom
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