ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — Last year, farmers in Athens County were faced with extreme drought conditions. This year, intense rainfall has been just as much of a problem.
“This year is completely the reverse [from 2024], especially June and July,” said Ryan Fogt, director of the Scalia Laboratory for Atmospheric Analysis at Ohio University. “We started out the year a little bit below normal in precipitation, but then were quickly removed from the drought status, and in June and July, we had a surge of precipitation. In July alone, we had over 11 inches measured at our rain gauge on West State Street near the baseball fields.”
In a typical year, Athens receives around 40 inches of rainfall, according to the federally funded Western Regional Climate Center. Athens has already experienced 44 inches of rainfall this year as of August 13, Fogt said.
This above average rainfall has likely been caused by a change in the jet stream, a strong band of winds that flow from west to east. The jet stream “dipped slightly over the northeast U.S.” in June and July, Fogt said.
“That pattern allowed the system to move slowly and then bring up a lot of tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and just allowed for rains to produce one to two [inches] — maybe even more — a couple inches at a time, with these storms.”
Fogt told the Independent that the increased rainfall has had both positive and negative consequences for the environment. Fogt noted that the rains helped streams, creeks and rivers return to regular depth and flow values, countering some of the effects of the 2024 drought.
However, the increased rainfall has also caused a number of flash floods, power outages and damages to infrastructure.
Impact on local businesses
Kara Olsen, founder and operator of Attican Farms in Albany, told the Independent that the intense rainfall killed multiple rounds of crops, including carrots, beets and radishes. Olsen estimated the financial cost of the crop losses in the thousands of dollars.
“This past spring, we lost pretty much everything,” Olsen said. “Our plan was to have this really big spring that we hadn’t done before, and we ended up losing almost every crop that we direct-seeded. Normally, a bit of rain in the spring is good; they’ll germinate, and you’re happy. This year, those seeds just rotted.”
Olsen isn’t the only farmer facing trouble from the increased rainfall. Inside Climate News recently spoke with several Southeast Ohio farmers struggling with the extreme weather.
“Since I’m relatively new, I tend to be kind of hard on myself and blame myself for all of the things that don’t work out well,” Olsen said. “That’s been the one kind of piece of solace is that every farmer I talk to is struggling a lot right now and having a lot more increased losses, having things that aren’t ripening.”
Complicating things for farmers was the lasting effect of last year’s drought on soil quality.
“Because of how dry the soil was, that really affected our soil health, like microbes and just kind of how healthy our soil was,” Olsen said. “So I’m noticing increased pressure from pests and things like that that I’m attributing to the decline of our soil health from the drought last year.”
High heat and torrential rainfall also have affected mead production at Dutch Creek Winery on SR 690 between Athens and Amesville. The winery produces mead, also known as honey wine, from its own bees.
“These bees don’t fly when it’s raining, so it’s definitely cut back on their production of honey, as they can’t get out and get nectar,” co-owner Paul Freedman told the Independent.
The winery may have to purchase honey to maintain its production rate, Freedman said. This will likely result in the business making a smaller profit on each bottle of wine sold.
Bees aren’t the only ones who haven’t been happy about the weather.
“Most people don’t want to venture far from home in the comforts of air conditioning if they have it, or the fan if they don’t,” Freedman said. “You don’t see too much visitor traffic on days when it’s above 90 despite it being sunny and the perception of it being beautiful…. When you get to 95 most people don’t want to sit outside and have a glass of wine.”
Freedman added that flash flooding, fallen trees and power outages also have kept customers away.
Although August has brought substantially less rain than June and July, that’s not necessarily good news for farmers, either.
“[There’s] been less [rainfall], to the point that it’s almost too much of a swing,” Olsen said. “It’s a little less than we want, right? So ideally you want about an inch of rain a week, or an inch of water a week for crops.”
Fogt predicts that the area will receive more rain later this month that will result in a more average monthly rainfall.
“We’re trending below normal for this month right now,” Fogt said. “Normal is about 3 inches for August, and we will probably still be on track to be a normal month, because we’re expecting some storms to drop an inch or two of rain throughout the remainder of the month and bring us close to the normal values for the month.”
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