Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Precipitation is a vital aspect of Earth’s climate and plays a significant role in shaping our environment. From gentle drizzles to heavy snowfall, precipitation comes in various forms, each with unique characteristics and formation conditions. This week we’ll delve into different types of precipitation and the atmospheric conditions necessary for their creation. […] Read more
Precipitation and atmospheric temperature profiles
The precipitation we receive depends on the air it meets along the way
The ingredients for a severe summer storm
Air temperature and movement determine whether it will be a storm to remember
Reading Time: 3 minutes What turns a regular thunderstorm into a severe thunderstorm, or occasionally, into a thunderstorm that you truly remember? First, there is a hot humid air mass in place, the air a few thousand feet up is very cold, providing for good lift, and there is a strong jet stream overhead to provide venting at the […] Read more
Opinion: Why climate change isn’t always to blame for extreme rainfall
Warm air holds more moisture, but not all catastrophic rain events are due to a warming globe
Reading Time: 3 minutes Extreme rain and floods can trigger a flood of another sort — claims that climate change is to blame. But these claims are not always well founded. In our new paper in Nature Geoscience, we discuss what can and can’t be attributed to climate change after extreme rain events. We use the floods of early […] Read more
Rain needed for soybeans, other southern Manitoba crops
Seeded soybeans projected to be up more than 40 million acres from 2022
MarketsFarm – When Toban Dyck started to plant his 600-plus acres of soybeans this year, the soil in the Winkler, Man. area had pretty decent moisture content. But following the combination of hot temperatures and strong winds with little rainfall in May, precipitation is now much needed. “There’s still a little bit of moisture there. […] Read more
Little chance for rain on Alberta wildfires
Coming cold front more windy than rainy in nature, Environment Canada says
Ottawa | Reuters — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Alberta on Monday as raging wildfires prompted mass evacuations and reduced energy production in Canada’s main oil-producing province, where meteorologists expect virtually no rain for 10 days or so. In Edmonton, Trudeau received an update on firefighting efforts by Canadian soldiers sent to help provincial firefighting […] Read more
Rain, drought highlight different growing areas
Eastern Prairies to see improved rains
MarketsFarm — Depending on which region you’re in, you could be stuck in a severe drought or facing rains that will help alleviate that dryness or push back when fields should be dry enough to begin spring planting. That’s the assessment from Drew Lerner, president and senior agricultural meteorologist at World Weather Inc. at Overland […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat futures sink on rains, global supplies
U.S. winter wheat conditions likely improved in past week
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures tumbled to fresh lows on Monday on ample world supplies, sluggish U.S. export demand and beneficial rains in key production areas of the Plains and Midwest. Corn futures slumped on forecasts for favourable Midwest planting weather and lagging U.S. export sales, while soybeans edged higher in a technical […] Read more
Prairie soil moisture picture growing clearer
Alberta driest; Saskatchewan variable; Manitoba mostly OK
It’s a variable soil moisture picture on the Prairies as seeding season draws nearer. The east has enough moisture — and in some cases too much. And it gets progressively drier toward the west, with portions of Alberta nearing critical condition, according to one weather watcher. Bruce Burnett, weather and markets director for the MarketsFarm […] Read more
U.S. forecaster sees 62 per cent chance of El Nino developing during May-July
Argentina, parts of U.S. could benefit; Asian crops may not
Reuters — A U.S. weather forecaster on Thursday predicted a 62 per cent chance of the El Niño phenomenon developing in the Northern Hemisphere during May-July, and a strong chance toward end-year, likely compounding risks to crops across the globe. “The coastal warming in the eastern Pacific may foreshadow changes across the Pacific basin. Therefore, […] Read more
California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for next
Also: Why all this rain won't end California's drought
Sacramento | Reuters — Rain-soaked Californians took advantage of a break in a weeks-long deluge to haul away dead trees, restore downed power lines and prepare new stacks of sandbags before another series of storms hits the state beginning Friday. In Monterey County along the state’s central coast, communities near the still-rising Salinas River were […] Read more
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