Drier than normal winter could cause problems for some Alberta farmers
Posted Mar 11, 2016 7:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s been a drier than normal winter across much of Southern Alberta.
While that’s made for a much easier season for drivers, there is a downside for farmers and others in the agri-business who count on the moisture being there in the spring.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag right now.
Ralph Wright with Alberta Agriculture says moisture levels are generally normal over the past 180 days, from September through February.
“In August, a large area from Red Deer, Calgary all the way east to the border had a huge rainfall event,” he said. “Some of those areas had seen an August like that less than once in 50 years on average.”
The driest places in the province, compared to normal, are north of Edmonton, around Grand Prairie and Peace River, where some areas have seen at least one in six year lows for total precipitation over the last few months.
He says it wasn’t until October that things stared to dry out but Wright adds that’s still normal, and even though Calgary hasn’t seen much snow, that’s fairly typical too.
Most of the fields around the city are seeing relatively normal moisture levels or at worst, dry conditions that come around every three to six years.
A good indicator of what to expect in the spring can often be tied to the snow pack and Wright confirms much of Southern Alberta is pretty bare.
“In fact if you look from December through to about the end of February, on average you’ll get about 60 or 70 millimetres so that puts most areas down about 50 millimetres in total,” he explained.
But that same area bordered by Red Deer, Edmonton and Lloydminster which saw the very moist August, are now seeing snow pack totals at 50 years lows.
Still, Wright says that can be made up fairly easily with a couple snow storms or a good spring rain.
