Alberta, Canada Crops Break From Dryness
By Drew Lerner
Kansas City, May 23 (World Weather Inc.) – As reported last week, Alberta, Canada, has begun a very important period of drought recovery. Rain totals over the past week have been impressive for an area in the western Prairies that was drought-stricken in recent weeks and months. The environment is now much improved and spring planting and crop advancement should be much improved. Additional rain over the next week to ten days will likely further saturate the soil and delay fieldwork.
Not all of Alberta was seriously relieved from dryness, but the vast majority was. Soil conditions are now much improved for crop development. Rain totals over the past week ranged from 1.00 to 2.50 inches most often with a band across some of the northern crop areas reporting 1.00 to 3.00 inches. Both Lloydminster and Cadogan, Alberta (located southwest of Provost) reported 5.27 and 5.39 inches respectively for the seven-day period ending at 0100 CDT today.
Portions of the very dry areas in west-central and southwestern Saskatchewan also received rain during the weekend, but amounts were more erratic and light. Swift Current reported nearly 3.00 inches while 0.15 to nearly 1.00 inch occurred in other areas. Southwestern Saskatchewan received significant rain a couple of weeks ago, but that storm missed the west-central parts of the province and much of east-central and southern Alberta. This past week’s weather has greatly eased dryness in many of those areas missed by previous rain, but some additional rain is still needed.
Weather in the coming two weeks will generate rain much more often in the western Prairies and that will see to it that dryness does not return. The biggest challenge for some producers will be in getting the remaining crops planted around the periodic precipitation, especially with topsoil conditions wetter now than they have been this season.
Other areas in the Canadian Prairies have not been nearly as dry for as long as Alberta, but there are some grumblings coming in from southern Manitoba and a few neighboring areas in both North Dakota and southeastern Saskatchewan about dryness. Rainfall in these drier biased areas may be limited for a while, despite a frequent “threat” of shower activity. The outlook does get better for these drier biased areas as May comes to a close and early June begins.
Temperatures across Canada’s Prairies will be warmer biased this week, especially in the east where the need for rain will steadily rise until significant relief finally takes place. Warm weather last week and during the weekend accelerated drying rates raising the need for significant rain in several areas.
World Weather, Inc. forecasts and comments pertaining to present, past and future weather conditions included in this report constitute the corporation’s judgment as of the date of this report and are subject to change without notice. Comments regarding damage or the impact of weather on agricultural and energy as well as comments made regarding the impact of weather on the commodity and financial markets are the explicit opinions of World Weather, Inc. World Weather, Inc. cannot be held responsible for decisions made by users of the Corporation’s information in any business, trade or investment decision.
©2016 World Weather, Inc. Any unauthorized redistribution, duplication or disclosure is prohibited by law and will result in prosecution.