BRYAN, Texas — Temperatures are heating up across the Brazos Valley, much different than this date last year when we saw temperatures in the 50s.
On Wednesday, we saw temperatures climbing into the high 70s, and we learn how this unusual hot weather is impacting our area.
“Last year we saw more than 12,000 wildfires across the state that burned more than 650,000 acres,” said Erin O’Connor, lead public information officer, Texas A&M Forest Service. “We had a really intense deep drought. We are not currently in that situation right now.”
While parts of Texas are still in drought, the Texas A&M Forest Service says it is not as severe as 2022.
For a local farm and restaurant in Bryan, Ronin, warm days help produce a fruitful harvest.
“We have to harvest and just get plants out of the ground,” said Lilly Cross, Ronin Farm. “Having a nice warm day in January means we can get some more seeds in the ground and hopefully get more vegetables growing again, so that we can get another big harvest this winter.”
There was limited grass production in 2022, resulting in smaller chances of severe wildfires now despite climbing temperatures.
“The threat of large significant wildfires is expected to be limited simply due to the fact that there is less critically dry grass across the landscape and there wasn’t a long growing season last year in 2022,” said O’Connor.
Carrots, turnip, radishes, and lettuces are currently growing at the Ronin farm.
With a few cold days in between the hot days, the produce is expected to harvest fine.
“They are cold vegetables that are growing right now so a little bit of cold doesn’t bother them — and it will keep them from going into their reproductive stage of life where they are bolting so we can handle the warmer days,” said Cross.
After operating for 12 years, Ronin says adjusting to the weather is key.
“By having some of the warmer days, otherwise we would have to wait until March to really harvest anything because we can plant them now, but with the cold days, the 40s and 50s, they’ll grow but they don’t grow very big whereas these 70s and 80 degree days, these plants will get a little bigger,” said Brian Light, Ronin Farm. “The heat and more sunshine helps a lot.”
While we warm up Wednesday, we will see a cold front coming in overnight dropping temperatures into Thursday morning.