LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — As much as people have enjoyed central Kentucky's dry weather lately, there's one group who was excited to see that rain today.
Farmers start getting pretty uneasy when we see dry stretches. A University of Kentucky agriculture professor said this week's rain will likely help save a lot of crops.
When you make your living off the land, summer can be a roller coaster.
"We started out wet, and then we got really dry," said Dr. Chad Lee, a professor of grain crops at the University of Kentucky.
Lee helps teach people how to grow things like corn and soybeans. He keeps a close eye on how healthy those crops are across the state.
"We have been living right on that edge of being too dry, or actually being too dry, not so far to the point where the crop is going to wilt and die on us, but we got very, very close to that a couple of times," he said.
That's why the rain this week is such a big deal.
"It's a huge, huge benefit to us. It's probably, if you look at it across the nation, it's probably at least a billion dollar rain," Lee said. "Billion, with a B!"
Today's rain was pretty spotty. The Kentucky Mesonet site in Fayette County saw an inch of rain. The Clark County site saw just under a half-inch. In Western Kentucky, though, some counties saw more than three inches in the last 24 hours.
"That's too much. That's way too much. Some of that's going to run off. Some of that will damage some of the crops. It can flood out some areas. We don't want that. We want a good, gentle rain that's going to really help our crops make it through," Lee said.
Still, this is mid-June. Lee and farmers like him know there's a long way to go.
"We still need more rain to go, as a really smart farmer said, we're always 10 days away from being dry again. We need, at this point, a good gentle inch of rain about every five to seven days," Lee said.
