After June drought, farmers get rain. But is it too much?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — In June, Monroe County farmers were dealing with severely dry conditions, but in July that all changed.

First Alert Meteorologist Alex Bielfeld revisited Stokoe Farms Friday to see how the recent rain is now affecting them.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have flipped the switch. We went from abnormally dry conditions to abnormally wet conditions.

The Frederick Douglass-Greater Rochester International Airport so far in just the month of July has picked up over 4" of rainfall. Compare that to May and June. Both of those months combined we only picked up 3" in terms of rain.

The switch has been good, but has it been too much? A few weeks ago, Bielfeld spoke with Suzanne Stokoe, the owner of Stokoe Farms, on those dry conditions and how it has affected her crop; but now that we’re seeing wetter patterns Bielfeld circled back with Stokoe to talk about how the wet weather is now affecting her crops.

"The Christmas trees were really the most obvious sigh of relief that we saw here at the farms,” Stokoe said. “Some of the little ones were droopy, but they have perked up. Some of them still will see a little stress from the long drought, but definitely improved. The corn is growing tall, pumpkins are blossoming, the Christmas trees. Everything really, you can notice a bit of difference in their growth."

Although the rain has been beneficial, we are beginning to approach the point of too much rain for farmers.

"Right now, we are almost at the point where we do need the rain to stop because we are getting into the harvesting of some crops,” Stokoe said. “Farmers trying to get in their wheat, their hay, their straw and are having difficulties getting into the field and getting a good product out."

The corn and the Christmas trees have continued to show progressive growth, but Stokoe also mentioned the corn has now tasseled. So, that means it will not grow any taller in length but the corn itself will begin to grow.