Eldon Bailey has never seen a Kansas summer like this one.

Bailey, 55, and his produce are regulars at area farmers markets.

And this season’s above-normal rainfall and below-normal temperatures have had a strange effect on crop production.

“I’ve got bigger, prettier fruit than I’ve had in 15 years,” Bailey said. “But most of my cantaloupes and tomatoes were wiped out.”

Now it’s getting just plain cold, thanks to an arctic front from Canada that’s pushing temperatures to new lows across the Midwest.

A low of 47 degrees Thursday morning in Lawrence was the coldest for the date since 1964. The normal low for Thursday was 69. And the expected high for today is 72, 18 degrees below normal.

Even the high temperatures this summer have been lower than usual. 6News meteorologist Matt Sayers said the highest temperature in Lawrence this summer was 98 degrees.

With 9.64 inches of rain in July, Sayers said it was the third-wettest July since 1939. So far in August, the official total of 2.01 inches of rainfall is about two-thirds of an inch ahead of normal.

Though it’s been colder and more damp than usual, Sayers said summers with highs of less than 100 weren’t uncommon.

“It’s definitely been a cooler summer,” he said. “But it has not been record breaking.”

No pool party

The cooler temperatures are having an ill effect on at least one popular summertime activity: swimming.

Thursday at the Lawrence Aquatic Center, assistant manager Marc Ricketts said the most people in the pool at one time was 26 at 2 p.m.

“On a normal day in August there would be between 400 and 500 people in the pool at 2 p.m.,” he said. “We’re definitely down.”

Ricketts said there were between 60 and 75 people at the pool Thursday.

For those whose summertime activities, and livelihoods, are growing crops, the cooler weather has presented a mixed bag. It’s been good for corn, sorghum and soybeans, but not so good for other crops.

“Nothing in a produce line likes damp, cool weather,” Bailey said. “There’s been too much humidity and humidity causes damage.”

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With too much saturation of the ground, plants cannot get oxygen and they die, Bailey said. Also, the increased precipitation causes blight and fungus.

Record yields

For soybeans and corn, which are Douglas County’s biggest crops, it’s been a great year. Officials at the Kansas Agriculture Department are predicting record-breaking yields.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service, in its first forecast for fall crops, estimated Thursday the state’s corn crop would be 40 percent larger than the drought-plagued 2003 harvest. Kansas farmers cut just 300 million bushels last year, with average statewide yields then of 120 bushels per acre, the service said.

This year, according to the government forecast, the state will harvest 420.5 million bushels of corn. Yields statewide are expected to average 145 bushels per acre.

Bill Wood, Douglas County extension agent for agriculture, said farmers had been telling him their corn had never looked this good in August.

“Even if it quit raining today and didn’t rain the rest of the summer, we would still have good yields,” Wood said. “Corn looks as good as anybody can remember it.”

The state’s 2004 sorghum crop was estimated at 201.6 million bushels, with yields of 72 bushels per acre.

The projected harvest would be 54 percent more than a year ago. Last year, Kansas cut 130.5 million bushels of sorghum, with yields of 45 bushels per acre.

Kansas soybeans should top 86.7 million bushels if projections hold up. That is 52 percent above the 57 million bushels cut last year. Anticipated soybean yields were put at 34 bushels an acre.

Wood said the cooler temperatures could push back soybean harvests to later in the fall.

“If it were a few degrees warmer, the pods could develop quicker,” Wood said. “But they really look good, though.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.