Central Illinois farmers are being urged to prepare for fire risks as they harvest crops this fall. While the forecast calls for off-and-on rain over the next five days, the area has seen very little precipitation recently.
Heading into the last weekend of summer, the Bloomington-Normal area has had only one rainfall in the past month (Sept. 4), according to state climatologist Trent Ford.
Nearly all of McLean County is experiencing moderate drought, while the far southeastern tip, along with Champaign-Urbana and parts of eastern Illinois, is in severe drought. Ford noted the Mackinaw River is running so low it could harm nearby plant and animal life.
“Even though it’s only been extremely dry for the last 30 days or so, many of these rivers that are actually pretty sizable … that’s certainly the Mackinaw and Sangamon [rivers], are dropping pretty substantially,” Ford said.
Conditions have become so dry that McLean County has banned open burning until next Friday due to the elevated fire risk.
Ford warned farmers in harvest season to take extra precautions. “There’s a lot of fuel, now humidity, high temperatures, that’s ripe for fires,” he said. “There’s an extremely high risk of field fires.” He recommended farmers have a plan of action in case a fire breaks out during fieldwork.
The Bloomington-Normal area is down seven inches of precipitation below average this year (23 inches), while the Peoria area is about nine inches drier than usual (20 to 29 inches).
Ford added that one stretch of rainy days won’t be enough to return the area to normal conditions. “We’ll need to continue to see setter patterns for the rest of this year and for much of the winter to really call an end to the drought conditions we are seeing,” he said.
He noted it’s too early to call for water conservation, but if dry conditions persist for another week, that could change.
This article has been carefully fact-checked by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and eliminate any misleading information. We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity in our content.
Leave a Reply