Dry in the north, wet in much of the south

It’s another unusual year for precipitation.  

The northern grain belt has been uncharacteristically dry while much of the southern grain belt has recently gone from normal or below normal growing season precipitation to very wet. 

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada publishes online precipitation maps. You can pick the timeframe you want to examine and view maps for accumulated precipitation, precipitation percentiles and per cent of normal.

For the growing season from April 1 to August 4, virtually all of the northern grain belt recorded below normal precipitation. In fact, parts of the Peace River region, northeast Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s Interlake are below 40 per cent of normal for the growing season.

Much of the southern grain belt is average to above average including almost all of the region south of Red Deer and south of Saskatoon. The wettest area for the growing season is around Calgary and east with pockets at 150 per cent of normal. Regina is 60 to 85 per cent of normal. South and east of Regina, precipitation has been about average.

Part of southwest Saskatchewan and into Alberta shows on the map as having 60 to 85 per cent of normal precipitation. What the map doesn’t show is that much of that region went too long in June with very little rainfall. Many crops had already lost a lot of yield potential by the time rains returned. Some are write-offs.