Long-running drought has “shrunk the kernels and disrupted the proteins of winter wheat crops” in the Pacific Northwest, which grows one-fifth of the U.S. crop, says the Seattle Times. Wheat growers worry that a poor-quality crop will mean lower market prices, aggravating the impact of lower yields. Blake Rowe, of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, told the newspaper that a heat wave in May and June caused soft white wheat, the dominant type of wheat in Oregon, to develop more protein than desirable for baking flour.
“We’ve had dry years in the past, but if anything it’s been warmer, and warmer for longer,” said Rowe.
The Times says, “Due to the heat and early wheat maturation, Northwest farmers began harvesting about three weeks early this year. The true value of the crop will be determined in the coming weeks as growers finish the harvest and receive estimates from grain elevators.”
In related news, heavy rainfall last weekend “is the most concrete evidence yet of powerful El Niño conditions that scientists are becoming increasingly convinced will lead to a wet winter for Southern California,” says the Los Angeles Times. Most of rainfall in the southern part of the state drains into the ocean. “California gets much of its water from the north, through winter rain runoff and snow slowly melting through the spring and summer, which is collected in reservoirs and then distributed across the state.” If winter precipitation is mostly rain, there will be less lasting benefit than if snow falls in the Sierra Nevada.