An atmospheric river forecast for later this week is the last thing farmer Rob Galey wants to hear about.
“More rain is the last thing we need right now,” Galey said. “Our low land, we are just getting in with the planters.”
One of the fields at Galey Farms is planted with more than 200,000 strawberry plants.
Spring is prime growing season, and these plants would normally be heavy with fruit, but the ground is wet, and cold.
A large section of this field isn’t planted because a tractor was bogged down in the mud.
There should be two dozen workers in this field harvesting strawberries, but Galey said all the crops are weeks behind.
“We’re a solid two to three weeks behind, and not just in the berries,” Galey said. “But in the carrots, the potatoes, the corn is more than that behind. Pumpkins are finally up, but we are hoping they are going to be oranged up for Halloween.”
Armel Castellan, meteorologist, Environment and Climate Change Canada said another atmospheric river will hit the west coast Thursday.
“It is a little peculiar that it’s mid-June and we’re seeing an atmospheric river,” Castellan said. “Typically we don’t see them outside of October through early March.”
Catellan said this system is not expected to be anything like November’s devastating atmospheric rivers, where flooding caused $515 million in damages, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
The Bureau estimates insurance claims due to extreme weather events such as atmospheric rivers have more than quadrupled over the past 15 years.
Last year at this time, an historic heat wave gripped the province for weeks.
Now farmers, like Galey, are hoping to hang on until the weather improves.
“We’re just going to take it in, daily. And just deal with what we have to at the time,” Galey said.
Mary Griffin
