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While slogging to work or school today in the snow, keep in mind that forecasters predict temperatures will soar to the 70s this weekend. But that’s not until after another round of snow or rain falls this afternoon or tonight, according to CBS4.
Wellington farmer Andy Grant is among those hoping the warm weather returns. While the snow brings some good moisture, the soil on his farm hasn’t been too warm this spring–just 44 degrees at two inches deep, “pretty darn cold” for May, he tells 9News. Grant, the owner of Grant Family Farms, says his crops’ growth has been stunted and his first harvest, expected in June, will come “a couple weeks behind normal.”
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Mike Hungenberg, owner of Hungenberg Produce in Greeley, tells a similar story, but is hopeful because the “snowpack in the mountains looks good” and when it begins to melt, there could be good water for farms this summer. Yet, his plum trees aren’t doing so well because low temperatures mean there aren’t many bees flying and pollinating them. “Without bees we ain’t going to have fruit,” Hungenberg says. “Maybe by this weekend it’ll warm up and we’ll see a few more bees.”
This cool, cloudy weather wouldn’t even be good for a nonfood farm that Colorado State University wants to start–the nation’s largest university solar farm (via the Fort Collins Coloradoan).