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COUNTY HAS ALREADY SEEN YEAR’S WORTH OF RAIN

By Scott Loftis/SPECIAL TO THE COMMERCIAL
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 10:41 PM CDT

There are still three months left in 2009, but a year’s worth of rain already has fallen in Jefferson County and local farmers are feeling the effects.

Brian Smith, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service in Little Rock, said Wednesday that Jefferson County has gotten 52.27 inches of rainfall in 2009 — less than a quarter-inch short of the county’s annual average of 52.48 inches.

“It’s just the weather pattern we’ve been in,” said Smith, who attributed the increased rainfall to upper-level winds out of the Midwest and said rain will remain a possibility for the next few days before a dry spell is expected to begin.

For area farmers, the excess water has led to reduced yield and quality in their crops, according to Don Plunkett, an agent with the Pine Bluff office of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

“It’s just a nasty situation,” Plunkett said. “We’ve got farmers that have tried to harvest this week, and we’ve had just a couple of days of drying time. We are seeing a lot of damage.”

Rice farmers have been particularly hard hit, Plunkett said.

“We’ve got some rice that’s on the ground, and that makes it extra slow to harvest,” he said. “It just really costs a lot of time and manpower. It’s just a slow go to get that stuff off the ground.”

Plunkett added that rice and corn have been “sprouting.”

“That simply means that the grains are trying to make new plants,” Plunkett said. “That affects the quality of the crop.”

A problem that isn’t as obvious, but just as bothersome, is the damage caused to the fields by the combination of wet, soft ground and heavy harvesting equipment.

“You have a lot of slippage with the equipment and that leaves horrible ruts in the fields,” Plunkett said. “Then you’ve got to deal with all those ruts before you can plant for next year.”

The heavy rains also have led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to extend a small-craft advisory that it issued last week for the Arkansas River. The Corps issues such advisories when water flows on the river exceed 70,000 cubic feet per second. Currents on the river become swifter and stronger when the water flows increase, and large debris is carried downstream.

The Corps reported that water flows at Emmett Sanders Lock and Dam at Pine Bluff were above 70,000 cubic feet per second on Tuesday and were expected to exceed 130,000 feet per second today and Friday. The Corps is advising pleasure boaters to stay off the river until water flows recede to safe levels.

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