Heat hits farmers.

Byline: Doug LeDuc

Jun. 28--Residents growing anything outdoors besides cactus stand to benefit from a letup in the hot, dry weather that's been baking northeast Indiana. It's unlikely, however, that today's rain will be enough of a respite to turn things around for some local businesses.

The hot weather that started last week convinced Hilger Brothers Farm to end its you-pick strawberry season five days early, said John Hilger, who operates it with his brother, Joe. The farm supplies Hilger's Farm Market at U.S. 30 and Butt Road.

"We do irrigating where we can, and where we can't, the pumpkins are just standing still and the sweet corn needs water or it's not going to make sweet corn," John Hilger said. "It's getting very dry and a lot of vegetables don't like this kind of heat."

Temperatures in Fort Wayne reached a high of 95 Monday, which was 12 degrees above normal for June 27. The day was the ninth day this month of highs in the 90s, said Scott Hickman, a meteorologist with National Weather Service/Northern Indiana.

Before today the Fort Wayne area had received only 1.4 inches of rain so far for the month, which put it 2.12 inches below normal, he said. The Palmer Drought Severity Index published by the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that nine counties of northeast Indiana are in a moderate drought.

That's a problem for fruit and vegetable production because irrigation takes time and money.