So Far Quiet Hurricane Season

Columbus, Miss. (WCBI) – Drought conditions are developing across northeast Mississippi. A quiet hurricane season is part to blame.

It was 1967 when William  McGee started growing rye grass for his cattle. It’s what the cows graze on during the winter. All he needs is two to three inches of rain to sustain the fields since he plowed on September 1st.

This year, mother nature sure cut it awfully close.

“This year’s been an exception of course. We haven’t had any rain. And we’ve been waiting since the first of Sept for that rain,” says Mississippi Farmer William McGee.

But finally it came just in the nick of time. Just days after we talked to William McGee he received about 3.5″ of rain in just one weekend.

And indeed, it was tropical moisture that brought him the rain.

Despite the 2013 hurricane predictions from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration calling for an above average hurricane season with thirteen to twenty named storms with three to six of them reaching major hurricane status, so far this hurricane season has been fairly quiet.

To date, the strongest hurricanes so far this season were category one.

Dry air and dusty conditions in the Atlantic are key factors for a “so far” quiet season.

“I don’t think we’ve had a single year since that we didn’t have some tropical depression of some sort that would bring us water,” says McGee.

And like clock work, William McGee welcomed his much needed rain. And if it didn’t…

“We’d have to depend on some type of stored forge. We so have some stored forage but we don’t have enough to get through the winter without having rye grass available,” says McGee.

Because of the much needed rain falling just in time, he plans to move his cattle on the fields within the next thirty days.

Hurricane Season ends on November 30.