Drought is affecting all of WV. Experts say we should prepare for future erratic weather events

West Virginia remains under a state of emergency due to dry conditions in all 55 counties. (Mark Hochleitner | Getty Images)

Rain may be on the way, but for many West Virginia farmers, damage from this year’s drought has been done.

West Virginia remains under a state of emergency due to dry conditions in all 55 counties, particularly in the Eastern Panhandle, which is experiencing extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“The farmers, particularly those with livestock, are starting to feed their winter hay, which is not a good thing to do because then they won’t have the hay for the winter,” state Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said. “And they’re not going to get a second cut because the grass isn’t growing. So they’re going to have to start buying hay.”

Leonhardt said that for Eastern Panhandle counties, this year’s drought is among the worst in 130 years.

“It’s new to a lot of the farmers. They’ve not seen this. The creeks are drier than they’ve ever seen them, those types of things,” Leonhardt said.

Smaller produce, increased encroachment from wildlife

Workers at Orr’s Farm and Market in Martinsburg started noticing the effects of dry conditions about a month ago. Plants that were not irrigated looked droopy, general manager Katy Orr-Dove said. There wasn’t enough rainfall to sustain the farm’s field crops, including pumpkins, green beans and corn.

“It’s been taking a good bit of labor to hand water a lot of fields using water tank trucks and sprayers off the back,” Orr-Dove said. “It takes about three people. You have a driver, and then you have a person on each side just watering. They just drive up and down the road every other day.”

In addition to the drought, this summer’s extreme heat has changed the timeline for fruit ripening, Orr-Dove said. The business’s main crops are peaches and apples.

“Our crops are so strange right now, like things are coming in at different times that I’m used to,” she said. “We’re picking apples right now that normally we’d pick 10 days from now. So it’s just some strange ripening. You just have to kind of really be monitoring things so that you’re not missing anything because it’s not on its normal time schedule due to the extreme heat.”

While rain this week has helped, Orr-Dove said the farm’s business has been “drastically” hurt by the drought, which has caused produce like peaches to be smaller than they typically are.

“Our harvest right now on peaches has probably been a third to a quarter of what it normally is,” she said. The heat has been good for the fruit’s flavor, she said. It makes them sweeter.

Lewis Jett, an extension specialist with West Virginia University, said the drought has made West Virginia crops more susceptible to insects and disease and has increased the wildlife stress on plants.

“It seems like the birds have been flocking… and eating the corn,” Jett said. “Deer pressure has been more intense. So [the drought] has some of these other effects that we’re seeing across the environment, too.”

Climate change may play a role

Dr. Jason Hubbart, the interim associate dean for research in the Division for Land-Grant Engagement at West Virginia University, said it’s hard to say to what extent climate change is to blame for the state’s drought. Hubbart is a physical hydrologist who studies climate variability and change to understand better how to mitigate and adapt to coming climate events.

“What I suspect… is that it could be part of a natural process, a natural swing in drought, but I’m fairly certain that the severity of it is related to [man-made] climate change,” Hubbart said.

Hubbart, who has studied about a century’s worth of weather data in West Virginia, said the state is experiencing cooler summers, warmer winters and increased precipitation. The state’s winter seasons have shortened by up to 20 days over the last century, he said.

Hubbart said the current drought conditions are in stark contrast to the wetter climate trends he’s observed in data and the weather climate scientists say will happen here.

“This is an anomaly, this drought, and we can hope that it won’t occur very often, but what we can almost say with certainty is that it will occur. And in fact, we could see more severe periods of drought too,” Hubbart said. “And so we should probably be thinking about how we’re going to mitigate those moments.”

Rain will help but not eliminate drought

The Eastern Panhandle is expected to get three to five inches of rain associated with Hurricane Debbie this week, said Kevin Whitt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service for Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Gov. Jim Justice on Thursday issued a state of preparedness for all 55 counties as rain and flash floods were expected from remnants of the storm.

The rain is expected to lessen but not eliminate the drought, said Beth Southern, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture. As of Thursday, the office did not yet have an estimate for how many farmers have been affected by the drought.

State, farmers should plan for future events, experts say

Jett said beyond the drought, the state should brace itself for erratic weather events in the future.

Farmers can prepare for risk by planting throughout the season and setting up irrigation systems on farms with high-value crops, he said.

“Natural rainfall is just not reliable enough anymore,” he said. “You have to have your own control over watering.”

Hubbart said the drought is a chance for the state to better prepare for future droughts and other extreme weather conditions.

Climate change is impacting extreme weather, increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves, droughts, floods and wildfires.

Justice was wise to issue a state of emergency, creating opportunities for affected farmers to get help, Hubbart said.

“It also creates a sense of urgency in terms of that we need to really be thinking about how we address this for the future,” he said.

Help is available for West Virginia farmers affected by the drought

The West Virginia Conservation Agency offers cost-share funding to supply water to livestock. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also has a Natural Disaster/ Drought Assistance Program for farmers and ranchers.

A complete list of resources available to affected farmers is on the Department of Agriculture’s website.

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