First day of fall hits Merced, but warmer weather on the horizon

Fieldworkers picked through sweet potatoes Wednesday, sizing them and making sure they went into the right containers under the shade of a haulers canopy on a warm fall day.

The first day of fall may havefelt like summer with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees, but that’s OK with Adam Shaner, a farm manager for Quail H Farms in Livingston.

“I think we had ideal weather,” the 30-year-old said. “I think the weather worked out well.”

The summer saw few days with temperatures of 105 and higher, which can stress plants just like it stresses people, Shaner said. Warm but not too hot is a benefit to the tubers.

The company also has to shut down for the day when temperatures hit 95 if farmworkers are working the fields under the hot sun. He said that slows the harvest and shortens the work day for employees.

The temperatures have been good for the 550 acres of sweet potatoes grown by Quail H, but the farm made some changes to its growing schedule to account for forecasts predicting a wet El Niño season.

Shaner said the farm is harvesting earlier than normal in case the storm season brings heavy rain. Wetter ground can affect the shelf life of the sweet potatoes.

Following weather forecasts is a common hobby for farmers. Shaner has six different weather apps on his smartphone.

California is the country’s third-largest sweet potato producer, behind North Carolina and Mississippi, according to the California Sweetpotato Council, and 95 percent of the state’s crop comes from the Livingston area.

The crop was worth $207 million in 2013, according to the latest Merced County Crop Report.

Though the summer in Merced County hasn’t seen weeklong triple-digit highs like it often does, the year has been warmer than usual.

The Merced area’s average temperature so far this year is 3 degrees higher than normal, said Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford.

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction said the planet was the hottest it’s ever been in August according to 136 years of data.

Rowe said the Merced area is forecast to hit the mid-90s through the weekend, which would make it hotter than the average year. Temperatures will begin to decline Monday, he said.

The El Niño season is here, he said, but the rain comes later. How much rain is still up in the air.

“The consensus says we’re going to be having a strong El Niño,” he said.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 7:01 PM with the headline "First day of fall hits Merced, but warmer weather on the horizon."