Heat and a Scrooge-like drought may spike Christmas tree prices this season.

In most years, Paul May never has to irrigate the firs and spruces growing on his Burlington County Christmas tree farm.

Spring and summer rains keep them healthy and green. This summer’s unyielding drought has him pumping more water than ever before.

“Last year, I irrigated maybe one day, and that was one day in like the last six or seven years,” May, owner of Kenlin Farms in Edgewater Park, said. “It’s bad. Historically bad. All the balsam firs are dying.”

Given the cost of fuel for irrigation pumps and other inflation issues, May said customers could see more expensive trees this season along with limited supplies. The average Christmas tree cost $78 last year, according to the American Christmas Tree Association.

“Trees could be close to $100 this year,” May said.

According to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln national drought monitor, most of New Jersey is under some degree of drought between abnormal, moderate, and severe. Coastal areas of the state, including Atlantic and Cape May Counties, have seen 50% reductions in rainfall averages in the last 90 days.

“We’re on pace to have the driest summer since 1966,” said New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson.

The drought is particularly difficult for farmers in South Jersey, where water quickly permeates the sandy soil.

“It just dries out quickly,” May said.

Summers are also getting hotter and drier in Philadelphia and South Jersey, too, Robinson said. Rutgers University found that July was the sixth-hottest since 1895. Of the 10 warmest Julys ever recorded, eight occurred since 2010.

“In Jersey, this is probably going to be the third-hottest summer of all time,” Robinson said.

Bill Exley, of Exley’s Tree Farm in Gloucester County, said the drought conditions are the worst he’s seen in a decade. He’s been able to mitigate the problem with irrigation but agreed that prices will likely rise — an issue first reported by NBC10.

“We’ve had to water just nonstop all summer,” he said.

In Indiana County, Pa., the “Christmas tree capital of the world,” rainfall has actually been above normal this summer. That surprised Gregg Van Horn, who farms 50 acres in Creekside, Indiana County.

“I lost 100 or so trees out of 2,000 I planted this year,” he said, which he says is reasonable. “We’ll get hot, dry weather for a long while and maybe one day of good rain. It is dry around here, but it hasn’t gotten really super dry.”

Van Horn, whose farm is about 90 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh, said he was selling trees for $60 last season.

“I can’t charge too much more than that,” he said.

Pennsylvania is one of the top suppliers of real Christmas trees in the United States, along with Oregon, North Carolina, and Michigan. New Jersey ranks below them, but the country’s first Christmas tree farm was planted near Trenton in 1901.

May and Exley said the few rain showers in South Jersey this summer have been short and sporadic. It may rain on one of Exley’s fields in Gloucester County, but not their other field, just 15 miles away.

“I’ll see storm clouds coming in,” May said, “but then it won’t rain.”