CNS Canada — Well timed weekend rains across Western Canada have benefited germinating canola crops and soil conditions — but some areas could use more moisture, one weather and crop specialist says. “In terms of the timing of the rains, they’ve been pretty well ideal,” said Bruce Burnett of G3 Canada. Showers over the week […] Read more
Timing of rain ‘ideal’ for Prairie crops
Alberta acres need one good soaking rain
Reading Time: < 1 minute Although over-winter precipitation accumulations were well below normal across most of Alberta, total over-winter precipitation deficits do not exceed 70 millimetres, even in the driest areas. “From a cropping perspective, these shortfalls can effectively be eased by one good soaking rain, or a few large spring snowstorms,” says Ralph Wright of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. […] Read more
Soil moisture in Alberta improves after wet fall
Reading Time: < 1 minute Late-October rains caused harvest delays for many, but the three to five millimetres were near to below average. And in most areas south of Red Deer, conditions were quite dry over the first two months of fall. Most areas in the province experienced at least near-normal accumulations of precipitation during September and October, although some […] Read more
The latest winter outlook and more on cold weather precipitation
October was a pleasant change from September, but will the warmer-than-average weather continue for the rest of the year?
Reading Time: 3 minutes In my last article I said that we’d continue our discussion on cold weather precipitation. But before diving into that icy topic, I want to take a look at the weather so far this fall and see if the long-range winter forecasts have changed. After experiencing a cooler- and wetter-than-average September across pretty much all of agricultural […] Read more
The (super) cool lowdown on how snow is formed
Snow will soon begin to fall but a lot has to happen before clouds are ready to produce the white stuff
Reading Time: 3 minutes As we slowly work our way towards winter I thought it might be time to begin our look at the sometimes dreaded ‘S word’ — snow. Instead of just jumping straight into a discussion about snow I think we’ll take a bit of a slower approach that will hopefully help lessen the pain for some […] Read more
Crop 2015: Parched to soaked
From super dry to super wet — it’s been quite a year
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s been anything but a normal year — and Justin Bell is just one of hundreds of Alberta farmers who can attest to that. The Rosebud producer was praying for rain in June and praying for it to stop in September. “We were ready to start on Sept. 7, but then we got two inches […] Read more
Light rains delay harvest, province estimates more than half complete
Alberta crop conditions as of September 29, 2015
Reading Time: 2 minutes Over the weekend, most parts of the province received light rains which were enough to delay harvesting operations. However, producers were able to make better harvest progress this past week than during the previous week. Harvest is estimated to be 58 per cent completed provincially, up 12 per cent from last week. While 25 per […] Read more
Wet weather continues to stall harvest, pastures, hay rate poor
Alberta crop conditions as of September 15, 2015
Reading Time: 2 minutes Following a brief dry spell to the middle of last week, wet weather over the weekend slowed down or completely halted harvesting operations across the province. Most of the province received rain, from less than 5 mm in northern areas of Peace and North East Regions and small areas in South Region, to over 30 […] Read more
Rain slows harvest, producers seeing better than expected yields
Alberta crop conditions as of September 8, 2015
Reading Time: 2 minutes Producers were only able to make limited harvest progress this past week as a general rain covered virtually all areas of the province. Beginning Friday of the long weekend, amounts of 35 – 60 mm fell in the South, Central, North East and North West regions while lesser amounts of 15 – 30 mm fell […] Read more
Why does El Niño have such a big impact on our weather?
It’s all about heat and the atmosphere’s aversion to imbalances when it comes to hot and cold
Reading Time: 4 minutes A few weeks ago while waiting for a triathlon to start, a thunderstorm rolled through the region forcing everyone to run for shelter. While listening to people talk during the storm I overheard a weather-related idea or story that I’ve actually been mulling in my head for a while now, but I still haven’t figured […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
