As we go through May it is time to think about timely rain events and productive growing temperatures. The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center is predicting warmer than normal temperatures to go with normal precipitation for the next 8 to 14 days. With most of the corn and tobacco crop already in the ground and soybean planting off and rolling we will need to have steady rain events and average temperatures to help this growing season reach its full potential. The Sanford Airport is one of the many weather tracking stations that the North Carolina State Climate Office uses for tracking weather patterns. That particular station has reported a little over an inch and a half of rain between May 1st and May 5th of this year. This rain event was desperately needed due to the last noticeable rain event being on April 11th at that location. So you may be wondering what all this means. We need the predicted normal precipitation events to come to fruition. We may no longer have dry conditions but if we have another extended dry spell we could easily find ourselves back in that situation. Hopefully the weather cooperates for a productive year.