Ag Weather Forum

Flooding Increases in Canadian Prairies

Doug Webster
By  Doug Webster , DTN Senior Ag Meteorologist

Light snow and another brief push of chilly weather blew through the Prairies a few days ago, but on the whole spring is in full swing across Canada. The rapid increase in temperatures brought on the annual spring flood, leading to flooded of some roads and low crop land.

The brief chilly weather earlier this week was a blessing in disguise: it helped slow down the meltdown and may keep this year's flooding a little less severe than earlier thought. Additional help is coming in the form of dry weather. We see little threat of rain or snow during the next week, with most days expected to be sunny and dry. Some light showers may arrive during the second half of next week along with a cooling trend.

P[L1] D[0x0] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

Flooding of roads during the coming few weeks is an issue for farmers. They are starting to get out into the fields, and this could affect delivery of fertilizer and other farm essentials to farmers so they can get crops planted in time. This year's delayed spring flood, along with spring's late start, delays fieldwork and seeding for a region already challenged by a short growing season.

Snow cover continues to diminish across the region, with Alberta reporting mostly bare ground across most of the southern and central part of the province. It will take another week or a little more of mild weather to melt most of the snow across the remainder of Saskatchewan and Manitoba's crop regions.

Mild, dry weather is the best remedy to return conditions to more normal levels. There is still time for some recovery during the next few weeks. Current longer-range weather forecasts tend to favor milder-than-normal temperatures during May, along with less-than-normal rainfall. Assuming Mother Nature does not throw a curve ball and these forecasts work out, we should see increasingly favorable conditions for fieldwork and seeding across the Prairies within the next few weeks.

Doug Webster can be reached at doug.webster@telventdtn.com

(CZ/ES)

P[] D[728x170] M[320x75] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]
P[L2] D[728x90] M[320x50] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]

Comments

To comment, please Log In or Join our Community .