It won’t end the drought but parts of the Canadian Prairies saw much better moisture in August following a parched July.
As the map below shows, a large part of Manitoba – including the Interlake Region – has seen more than 200% of normal precipitation over the past 30 days (shown in dark blue). A large portion of south-central Saskatchewan, including Regina, has also been abnormally wet.
Meanwhile, with the exception of a few areas in Alberta, two of which bleed over into western Saskatchewan, most of the remaining Prairie areas received anywhere from normal to above normal rainfall during the same 30-day period.
The rain has come far too late to help most Prairie crops, although it may help add to a few bushels to later-harvested corn and soybeans. In fact, the rain has slowed harvest progress considerably, with Tuesday’s Manitoba crop report pegging the harvest in that province at 35% complete, up just 5 points on the week. The Saskatchewan harvest was slowed as well, gaining only 7 points from the previous week to 36% done as of Monday. (Alberta harvest progress will be reported later Friday).