What was the most discussed agricultural topic in 2004?  The answer of course was the weather and the second place finisher (whatever that was) is not even close.  There was obviously good reason for this.  A brief discussion of growing degree days (GDU’s) can be found below, but let’s take a closer look at precipitation first.  The record rainfall months for Fond du Lac are as follows: 

   That’s right, May was the highest recorded rainfall in any single month since records have been kept.  For the months April through October, a total of 30.04 inches of rainfall was recorded.  Amazingly, about 45 percent of that amount fell in the month of May.  As they say, timing is everything and this was just one of those years when we couldn’t get the two out base hit.

     It doesn’t take a computer spreadsheet and high-end mathematical equations to inform people that the 2004 growing season was not a record setting year for heat stroke cases.  Nevertheless, the numbers do point to how far away this growing season was from average.  In the graph to the right, eight years of growing degree unit (GDU) data are presented, but it’s pretty easy to pick out 2004.  By the end of September, we found ourselves 458 GDU’s behind normal.  That’s about the equivalent of 22 good summer days of heat.  As we all know, it could have been much worse if not for the exceptional weather we experienced in September, a month that was 91 GDU’s above normal.  Just how weird was this year?  On August 11 we had a high of 57 degrees and a low of 49 degrees (3.5 GDU’s).  On September 11, we had a high of 81 degrees and a low of 63 degrees (22.5 GDU’s).