Saskatchewan Hit With Killer Frost

Sep 08, 2020
The temperature dipped below zero in a number of areas across the Prairies on Monday night, one of the hardest hit areas was Saskatchewan.
 
Environment Canada's Weather Summary shows temperatures ranged from -2 in the Kindersley, Humboldt area, to -5 in Rosetown, Swift Current and Assiniboia, to -7.9 in Coronach and Val Marie.
 
Shannon Friesen, a Crops Extension Specialist with Saskatchewan's Ministry fo Agriculture, says anything below -3 for more than an hour or two is certainly a killing frost. 
 
"Last night, many parts of the province certainly saw that.  For much of the crop out there, fortunately a lot of it is advanced enough that the frost really shouldn't take a huge toll."
 
However, there are still areas that have late seeded crops, and green crops that will see some damage.
 
She notes one of the most vulnerable crops is canola.
 
"The damage we may see from those really hard frosts is that we may have some shattering out of those pods. They may turn white, they may turn almost watery and mushy. Of course, if they were advanced enough, where we have those black seeds things should be a lot better but of course only time will tell."
 
Friesen says crops like sunflowers and flax often benefit from a frost, it actually helps to cure that crop and bring it into harvest a lot faster.
 
"We do have quite a few sunflowers in the south as well as flax.  So, because we've had such a hard frost in fact, that may help dry the crop down a lot quicker for us so that producers are able to get out a lot earlier."
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