Early October Snow in Hettinger
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| Andrew Keller |
| 10/5/2009 |
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| Monday`s rain quickly turned into snow for the southwestern part of the state. It came down earlier in the season than usual, but it`s by no means unheard of. Spring, summer, and fall happened in the span between June 6th, the last time it snowed, and October 5th for the people of Hettinger. Of course that`s no cause for celebration for most people. "I wasn`t too happy when I woke up this morning, nope," says Tyler Erickson, who doesn`t like it. "It`s too early for snow," says Courtney DeYoung. And of course there are those who say bring it on. "This part of the world, you know, we`ll take moisture any way we can get it," admits Chuck Christman. "We were dry, we`ve seen it before, a couple years ago we had a foot of snow on the fifth of October or so, so we`re used to it," says Jordan Christman. It`s just three months and 30 days since the last time Hettinger saw snow. Hettinger was blanketed. Residents say after a long night of rain, it changed to snow early in the morning, and by 9:00, it was accumulating. In the early afternoon, there was a good inch or so on ground. Some say that`s enough; it can go back to being summer again. "I hope this is about all there is, it`d be nice," says Erickson. "I`d be happy with just one month of snow," DeYoung pleads. Unfortunately, Courtney, it doesn`t look to be turning out that way. It`s a nuisance to some but what does the early snowfall mean to producers? Snow topped crops in the area, but are they worried the crops be toppled? "Them sunflowers are tough, the corn will be fine, it`ll go away, we`ll get them off eventually," says Jordan Christman. Larry Kleingartner of the National Sunflower Association says as long as the wind stays calm, sunflowers should hold tough. "The key thing here is wind, if we see a lot of wind with a lot of snow then we could see some lodging," says Kleingartner. He says with the freeze in effect, the sunflowers will be ready to go once it dries out, and if and when it dries out, that`s when the majority will pull the crops off the fields. For now, Hettinger and parts of southwestern North Dakota are blanketed with snow. For NBC North Dakota News, I`m Andrew Keller. |
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