‘Shaky start’ to prairie seeding, forecasts for intermittent drying

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Published: May 4, 2017

WINNIPEG — Western Canada will likely see some favourable seeding conditions in the short term, one meteorologist says, though wet pockets in some areas need longer to dry out.

“We are getting off to a little bit of a shaky start in some spots, but it looks like the weather pattern is going to get better for us, in general,” said Drew Lerner of Kansas-based World Weather Inc.

The majority of Western Canada is expected to go through a period of warm and dry weather in the next few days, he said.

Read Also

Photo: Getty Images Plus

Alberta crop conditions improve: report

Varied precipitation and warm temperatures were generally beneficial for crop development across Alberta during the week ended July 8, according to the latest provincial crop report released July 11.

“So everybody will get a taste of spring and early summer-like weather,” he said.

But that weather isn’t expected to last long enough to dry out some of the wetter pocketed areas, namely parts of Alberta, northeastern and southeastern Saskatchewan and scattered locations in southern Manitoba.

Following the warm spell, Lerner expects a cool front, which will bring showers and thunderstorms, especially in the eastern two-thirds of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“And so we’ll put some moisture back on the ground, and we can’t tolerate a lot of moisture, even with the drying that’s coming up the next few days,” Lerner said.

Producers should watch the amount of rain that falls. If it’s less than half an inch, “we’re probably OK,” Lerner said.

“If we get something heavier than that, we might be a bit of a setback.”

explore

Stories from our other publications