Zane Lewchuk is looking for the silver lining in recent storm clouds on the Prairies.
“Overall, moisture is a good sort of problem to have,” said the Saskatchewan Agriculture crop development specialist in Yorkton.
Eastern regions have experienced a particularly wet spring, with full potholes dotting many fields.
While Melville received up to 100 millimetres of rain in less than one hour June 17, other areas in the region had less than half that.
Lewchuk said summer’s launch into warmer temperatures and sunshine this week are hopeful signs for the developing crop.
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“There are excellent growing conditions. Crops are jumping ahead,” he said.
Weeds are also growing well and wet conditions have delayed spraying, he noted. Some plants are also yellowing.
“Their feet are wet,” he said.
Excessive moisture is a problem for plants in many parts of the Prairies.
Karen Hill of Saskatchewan Crop Insurance said 100 claims from the Yorkton area were filed since June 17, with more expected by the June 25 seeding deadline for crop insurance.
“It’s been too wet to seed,” she said.
Heavy rainfall, tornadoes, funnel cloud sightings and baseball-sized hail were reported across Saskatchewan June 17, said meteorologist Brad Shannon of Environment Canada.
“There was a long line of thunderstorms that ran from the U.S. border up to the Saskatoon area,” he said.
“We had literally dozens of warnings for Saskatchewan Friday,” he said.
The next day, trees were uprooted, granaries were blown over and part of a barn north of Davidson was carried 360 metres, he said.
Trees were also damaged and a camper moved in high winds near the Battlefords, while hail and a tornado damaged roofs and trees near Duck Lake.
Severe weather was cited earlier in the week in west-central, southwestern and southeastern Saskatchewan that included 38 mm of rain falling at Grenfell.
The system came from Alberta, which has seen numerous flood warnings issued in recent weeks.
Martin Grajczyk, senior hydrologist with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, continues to monitor river levels to manage the flow of those waters into Saskatchewan.
The authority had increased the flow out of Lake Diefenbaker to 1,700 cubic metres per second June 20. That compares with a flow of 1,200 in 1995, the last year of major flooding.
“We will be three feet (one metre) above those levels,” he said.
It has led to the removal of more irrigation pumps and flooding of electrical panel boxes and buildings in low-lying areas.
Grajczyk said it would be much worse without the Gardiner Dam and Lake Diefenbaker, which regulate much of the water passing through the province.
“The flow would be twice as high, another three metres higher,” he said.
Forecasts do not indicate large amounts of rain this week, but most areas may see showers by mid-week and falling temperatures.
