By LINDA KELLETT

C-S-E News Staff

With a cold front on Thursday expected to bring much cooler air into the area than earlier this week, hit-or-miss thunderstorms could provide area residents with some relief from the hot and dry conditions plaguing the region this summer.

That’s according to Steve DiRienzo, meteorologist at the National Weather Service at Albany, who commented Tuesday on the so-called weather “theme” that’s affecting more than half of the country.

Usually drought-like conditions are localized, he said. This year, the conditions are widespread.

DiRienzo attributed the weather pattern to a more northerly jet stream than normal. He said, “The jet stream has been up north. The flow of hot air has come from Texas and Mexico, and a high pressure system is over the center of the country.”

Because the air flow is in a clockwise direction, the weather causing the hot and dry conditions “is coming from the Great Plains across the western Great Lakes into our area,” he said, adding that “we’ll get years like this periodically.”

He said it’s generally “really bad’ like this once a decade — with three out of 10 years wet, and three out of 10 dry.

Ironically, despite the clobbering that upstate New York took last fall, he said the lack of hurricanes across the nation last year is partly to blame for this year’s dry conditions.

Weekend thundershowers provided between a quarter of an inch to a half-inch of precipitation to the thirsty soil, but that’s a mere drop in the bucket.

DiRienzo said, “We could use two to three inches of rainfall, but that’s hard to do in summer.”

Area municipalities — including Canajoharie, Fort Plain and St. Johnsville — report adequate water supplies; and there have been few, if any, reports of farmers experiencing shortages of water for farm use and animal consumption.

However, conditions were dry enough last week for the state to issue a residential burn ban; and Montgomery County on Friday issued a ban that prohibits all open burning.

That ban, which ran through Wednesday, was subject to renewal. Absent a good soaking, it’s expected that the local ban will be extended through next week.

Dwight Schwabrow, director of the county’s Emergency Management office, said the ban includes burning in burn barrels and outdoor fireplaces. “There are no outdoor fires, period,” he said.

As noted in the news release signed by Shayne Walters, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and issued by the Sheriff’s Office Friday, a violation of the order is a Class B misdemeanor.

Schwabrow said several small fires were reported throughout the county over the last several weeks; and Friday morning, Canajoharie firefighters were on standby for a forest fire in the area of Caroga Lake, he said.

“The sheriff [Michael Amato] and I both decided the conditions were bad enough that it warranted the burn ban,” he added.

Tinder-dry grass and dried-up creek beds tell a story of their own; and Corey Nellis, director of the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District, is concerned that without some precipitation, area farmers who have already experienced some crop loss on the hay-production side could experience other significant losses.

On Tuesday morning, he said, “Second-cutting is not available for most people. Lawns and fields aren’t regenerating. It’s going on five weeks — since June 13 — without a significant rainfall. The corn is going to start suffering soon.”

With corn plants starting to tassel out, he said area producers won’t get the production they’re looking for without some rain.

He said, “I’m more concerned right now with a failed crop than a lack of water for animal consumption and farm use. We need one good shot of water.”

Farmers and rural residents experiencing water shortages do have some emergency water supplies available.

Nellis said three man-made ponds, funded with $400,000 in grant funding, were established in Montgomery County in 2001 for drought-like conditions that occurred every two years in the 1990s.

Those emergency water resources included ponds on property owned by the Rural Grove Fire Department as well as the Walts Road pond in the town of Minden and a pond on Old Sharon Road in the town of Canajoharie.

Nellis said the sites at Old Sharon and Walts Road, built in September 2001, both have pumping stations for the relatively inexpensive provision of non-potable water during extended dry spells.

Individuals wishing to tap into the gravity-fed hydrant at the Rural Grove site should contact fire officials.

In addition to the larger water bodies, he said 15 to 18 other ponds were constructed on private property with the grant funding.

Minden Supervisor Thomas Quackenbush said Minden-area residents have access to another source of water: a free-flowing spring just off Freeda’s Way in Mindenville. On Monday, two Herkimer County youths, who had biked from Little Falls on the Canalway Bike Trail, were cooling themselves at the site.

Quackenbush said another spring that comes out of the ground off South Buel Road in the town of Canajoharie also provides relief for rural residents during prolonged dry spells.

If the drought extends to September, Nellis said his office would work with county and state Emergency Management offices in order to secure an irrigation pump and a mile of irrigation line to help farmers replenish ponds from sources like the Schoharie Creek.

Once the equipment was secured, he said farmers would then be able to contact the Soil and Conservation District Office, and agency officials would coordinate pump usage.