Unprecedented drought grips Southwestern Saskatchewan

Soil moisture conditions in western Saskatchewan are far worse than they were in the Dirty Thirties, says a farm leader.

“It’s not just a little bit drier than the 1930s, it’s way drier,” said Garner Deobald, president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association.

For instance, annual precipitation in Swift Current so far in 2022 is 300 millimetres below average, which is twice as bad as the worst year in the 1930s.

This will be the 11th straight year of below-average precipitation. In the 1930s the longest streak was two consecutive years.

Deobald said today’s farmers have the know-how, the equipment and the crop genetics to get through these tough times. But he thinks people need to understand just how bone dry it has become in that region of the Prairies.