—Paul Willard
Bromfield’s 2013 graduates got their diplomas in the gym; Fun Fair activities were interrupted as volunteers rushed to pack up the games; would-be picnic-goers and concert-watchers had to postpone summer evenings at Fruitlands until July; and local vegetable farmers were unable to plant June crops—all as Harvard inched its way toward a record amount of rain in June.
Rain fell 15 of 30 days in June, but it was three drenching storms that flooded rain gauges and topped off the month at 10.06 inches of precipitation, almost six inches above normal.
One downpour after another
A weakened Tropical Storm Andrea, the first of the Atlantic hurricane season, had wreaked havoc from Cuba to New York before it reached Massachusetts with still enough power to break many rainfall records for Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8. The Bromfield School graduation traded its usual backdrop of library and pond for basketball hoops when it was rescheduled to the gym, and the storm dumped close to three inches on Harvard. Nearby Boylston saw 4.5 inches. Three days later Harvard got another 1.5 inches, followed by another 1.5 on June 14. Not yet to the halfway mark for the month, Harvard’s rainfall was already over the average for June.
A downpour pummels a patio in what was a very rainy month of June. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
“It’s been terrible,” said Paul Willard of Still River this week. Vegetable farmers have been unable to plant for three weeks. The ground is too soaked for the use of farm equipment, and lost plantings will lower yields for the year.
Vegetables delayed; orchards OK
Starting the first week of June, Willard said, he would have planted an acre of corn each week as well as one acre of pumpkins. Each week that goes by without a planting is a lost acre of vegetables at harvest time. “You can never catch up,” he said. “You can’t plant early corn in July—it just doesn’t work,” and there’s no point in planting more than you can sell in a given week come fall.
“The problem is not with what’s been planted, but with what hasn’t been planted,” Willard explained. “Friday’s rain would have been fine under normal conditions, but not on top of all the water already in the ground.”
Fruit growers, like Franklyn Carlson of Carlson Orchards, are having a better time of it. “We’re fortunate to be growing apples,” he said. “I’ve never seen water still on the ground in the orchards in June. But the bottom line is that the rain hasn’t affected us much.”
So far, prospects for the apple and peach crops look good, said Carlson. Cherries, which he’s picking this week, are “OK, but can crack in the rain.” He expects to begin picking peaches in mid-July, at about the same time as last year. The blueberries will be “nice,” he says.
Canceled concerts
Fruitlands Museum had to call off all three of its Thursday outdoor concerts, popular picnic events. The PTO Fun Fair on the Pond Road field was in full swing June 17, when menacing black clouds moved in and interrupted the annual fundraiser. A few yard sales were reconsidered and several barbecues moved indoors. Three weeks into the month, a house painter on Willow Road lamented already being considerably behind on his summer schedule.
Despite the many inconveniences—including mosquitoes and downed tree limbs—there appeared to be few that were detrimental to roads and property from the rain that made up for a generally dry spring. Harvard’s higher elevation spared it the flooding many other towns experienced.
No disruptions for DPW
Public Works Director Richard Nota said his department had no disruptions in its operations. “We’ve had a sharp focus on drainage issues over the past five years, and many of the problem culverts have been replaced and shoulder washouts have been held to a minimum. The staff has spent a lot of time monitoring the level of Bare Hill Pond. We’ve had to remove and reinstall the boards in the dam spillway numerous times to compensate for the heavy rains,” Nota said in an email to the Press.
Determining rainfall records for Harvard is tricky without a certified weather history for the town. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has 2013 monthly data for Fitchburg, Worcester, and Boston, and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation has monthly precipitation totals for many other towns. But which location’s weather is closest to Harvard’s?
Two unofficial Harvard sources, a backyard weather station and a local gardener who has recorded backyard data since June 2006, recorded more rain for June 7 and 8 than Fitchburg’s airport station, closer to Worcester’s figures. Undoubtedly, there are other Harvard residents with daily logs.
Using Worcester’s number of 10.09 inches, June closed the month as Worcester’s second wettest since it began recording in 1917. Amherst’s records, begun in 1832, are the oldest official data set in the state. There, only the June rains of 1862, 11.69 inches, surpass this month’s Worcester number.
By any measure, it was a wet one.
