Between April 1 and July 9th (exactly 100 days), Alberta’s agricultural areas experienced a period of extremely dry weather due to a stubborn weather pattern that blocked moisture bearing systems from entering the province.
“Over this time, the agricultural areas had received less than 100 mm of rain with many areas experiencing less than 50 per cent of normal rainfall,” says Ralph Wright, manager, agro-meteorological applications and modelling section, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Edmonton. “Some of the hardest hit areas received less than 50 mm of precipitation, with several stations seeing well under 50 mm of rain, particularly across the northern Peace Region, through southeastern Alberta and across parts of western Alberta. Looking at long-term precipitation records back to 1961, many areas were estimated as having conditions like this on average occurring less than once in 50 years.”
Early snowmelt in March and extreme wide spread frost in mid-May exacerbated problems, particularly since most agricultural producers had the ability to get on the land early. Adding to the early frost and lack of moisture, during latter stages of the “100 day event,” extremely warm weather descended on the province with the west half of the province estimated to have 15-day average daily temperatures over this time period to occur on average less than once in 50 years.
For most areas, the severe dry spell abruptly ended on July 9th, 2015.
Source : Agriculture and Forestry