Harold Souther is keeping track: It has rained 16 out of the past 23 days.

Although the soggy conditions have made it possible for him to watch more Red Sox games, the 80-year-old farmer is desperate for a stretch of dry, sunny weather.

His green beans are moldy. His pea vines are rotten. His squash and pumpkins are running 10 days late.

And forget about making hay.

“You need at least two consecutive dry days to bale hay, and we haven’t had much of that,” Souther said. “I don’t remember it being this bad since 1954, when we had three two-week wet spells and three hurricanes.”

July has certainly been wet.

Ask any farmer, painter, construction worker or campground owner. The thick, moist air and intermittent showers have slowed business and lowered their profits.

Most years, Souther, whose farming business depends on selling his hay to local horse owners, has bundled 10,000 to 14,000 bales of hay by now.

This year, a combination of the soggy ground and sporadic showers has left the Livermore Falls farmer far behind at 6,500 bales.

“We need a dry spell, five good consecutive days,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve gone a summer without one.”

The National Weather Service hasn’t totaled the statewide numbers for July.

But Art Lester, a meteorologist who works in the Gray bureau, confirmed what many have suspected: Rainfall has been above normal this month.

“It has been a sort of soggy summer, so far,” Lester lamented.

The cause, he said, is an abnormal amount of onshore air coming off the ocean and a slow-moving rain system that has made it seem like it never stops coming down.

In Portland, where the weather service keeps daily records, the total rainfall for July is at 3.83 inches. Lester suspected that people who live away from the coast have seen even higher totals.

The average amount for the state is 3.32 inches for July. Last year, it was much lower, at 1.06 inches. The year before, it was 3.3 inches.

Those numbers may be what is making this summer seem so bad, Lester said.

“And we haven’t had a lot of sun, either,” he said.

Managers at the Home Depot and Aubuchon Hardware in Auburn say local contractors have been dodging clouds for most of the month.

Christina Bartlett, the manager of Aubuchon’s, said local painters have complained to her about being behind schedule.

“Sunny August’ are the magic words,” she said.

Ron Bourque, the manager at the Home Depot, has also heard from contractors who are backed up. Many of them, he said, have found ways to make it work.

“It hasn’t been raining all day, so the contractors do as much work as they can when they can and then wait out the rain in their trucks until they can work again,” he said.

Campers at Beaver Brook Campground in North Monmouth have used a similar strategy. Manager Danell Kent said people are still coming, but campers are spending more time in the recreation hall, where the campground offers video games, a pool table and crafts for kids.

“People just say, I’m on vacation. I’m going to enjoy it,'” Kent said.

John Hemond, a dairy farmer in Minot, prefers this year’s rain and cool temperatures over heat spells and droughts. His corn and grass are growing at a spectacular rate. And his cows produce more milk in the cool weather.

Still, a perfect combination of rain and sun is always best, Hemond said.

“The cows produce better when it’s not hot, hot, hot,” he said. “But they slow down when they eat moldy hay.”

August is typically the driest month of the summer. Hemond is hopeful, but he’s not counting on it.

“In Maine,” he said, “anything can happen.”