"The way that crop expectations and yield forecasts are dropping ... in the next month or so, we’ll probably hit $1-billion of yield loss,” said Dreeshen. Alberta’s Cypress County has already declared a state of emergency and has made plans to push federal and provincial legislators for relief.
According to Trevor Hadwen, an agroclimate specialist at Agri-Food Canada, large parts of Western Canada are going through a one-in-20-year drought, with some parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba going through a one-in-50-year episode. “To have the entire region – or almost the entire region – in such severe drought is extremely uncommon,” he said. Low soil moisture in the spring means more reliance on precipitation through the growing season, something that sadly hasn’t happened this year in many Western Canadian farming communities.
To add to the difficult growing season, wildfires are raging in several parts of Western Canada, creating hazy, smoke-tinted skies that can make breathing a challenge, especially in such high temperatures. Although wildfire smoke can sometimes help reduce soil moisture loss by blocking some of the sun’s energy, reducing evaporation from the surface, but with this year’s drought, subsurface moisture levels are too low to make any substantial difference.