Warm weather keeps pools open longer, but hits farms with extreme drought

Summer weather arrived late this year — and is now sticking around a little longer.

The unusually hot September weather is worsening drought conditions across Minnesota, especially in the central part of the state — disappointing for farmers who dealt with one of the most severe droughts in state history last year.

In the metro, though, swimmers are rejoicing at the extra dry warmth. Beaches will remain open and Minneapolis is keeping wading pools open extra long this year thanks to the above-average temps.

"People need a place to cool off," said Robin Smothers, with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.

The Park Board decided Thursday to keep 31 wading pools open through Sept. 8 and another seven wading pools open past Sept. 8 until the weather cools, possibly until the end of the month — an unprecedented move, Smothers said.

Water parks and another 30 wading pools near or on school property closed Aug. 26 when school resumed in Minneapolis, but beaches will still be open to swimmers every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., despite docks being removed and lifeguards no longer staffing them.

But while swimmers may be eagerly soaking up the atypical September weather, it's complicating crops for farmers across the state.

"It's a bit disconcerting," said University of Minnesota Extension climatologist Mark Seeley. "That's pushing them right back into the predicament they were in last year."

In fact, last year's drought that hit Minnesota from midsummer into early winter was among the worst in state history. In April 2012, nearly 98 percent of the state was in some kind of drought condition.

A wet later part of winter and spring alleviated that, but now drought has returned after a streak of little rainfall and lingering heat. Since July, Seeley said, rainfall for central Minnesota is 5 to 7 inches short of average, stressing crops.

"They've been sucking the water out of soil," he said.

For farmers like Nick Lilleberg, who has 5,000 acres of land in Kandiyohi County near Atwater, it's hard to quantify yet how much the drought will affect yields, but it has already hit soybeans hard. "We're definitely feeling the effects," he said. "Every time I drive by, the fields look worse and worse, and that's hard to watch."

"The weather extremes are the hardest to deal with," Lilleberg said, adding that planting in the wet spring was difficult and now, "Boom, the faucet was turned off — it's a double whammy."