For the past two years we have been using a computer weather system for this purpose, and have had significant success. Last year the women of the family harvested over 150 acres of grass with only minor rain damage. Our weather history indicates it was one of the wettest summers we have had for years, therefore we consider this past summer a good test. The following outlines the process we use on the computer for a guideline. Hopefully it will be useful to others in the area who, like our family farm, have struggled since inception with the weather's often unpredictable nature.
Moisture is carried by air masses in our atmosphere.
One must understand the movement of these masses in order to calculate what to expect. The high and low air masses carry the moisture. Keep in mind which side of the pressure area your location is on at any given time and if the weather front is coming from land or sea. Even a portion of the pressure area will have an effect on these conditions. We use the following information in the order provided.