Ag Weather Forum

A new weather pattern featuring hot weather and much drier conditions has taken hold across western Canada during the past week. This is great news for farmers who have struggled with late planting, flooded fields, and slow crop development due to heavy rains of the past 6 weeks.

June rain totals across Alberta were 142 percent of normal while Saskatchewan and Manitoba chimed in with totals of 156 and 191 percent of normal respectively. June's heavy rains must be added to some of the abundant rains of late May resulting in some of the problems farmer's have encountered during recent weeks.

Temperatures during June turned out to be very close to normal with provincial temperature departures of -0.1, 0.0, and +0.6 degrees C from Alberta east to Manitoba, respectively. Some of the chilly temperatures came during the rainy episodes while warmth occurred during the few short dry spells.

The current warm to hot weather coupled with abundant sunshine will spark rapid growth of developing crops during the next several days as well as allowing soaked fields to dry. Even so there are quite a few reports of excess moisture stress and slow crop development to date. We should see improvement with this situation during the future.

Even though current temperatures are hot, we do not expect a long lasting spell of heat. Temperatures should simmer down to near to above normal levels during the next week while shower activity occurs in mostly a sporadic nature. We do not see at the current time any wet weather events that threaten the Prairies with large scale heavy rainfall during the next 10 days.

The percentage of fields with surplus soil moisture should diminish steadily during the next week as a favorably warm, mostly dry weather pattern continues across western Canada. The decent weather pattern will also allow for weed control and spraying of insecticides where needed. Favorable conditions for the start of the haying season is also expected.

The reason behind the much improved weather pattern is the northward shift of the main jet stream. During the past 6 or 7 weeks the jet stream was crossing through the Prairies keeping the region the path of a series of low pressure areas. Recently the jet stream has shifted north allowing for some of the hotter weather from the western U.S. to bubble northward.

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

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