
Prairie Forecast: Arctic high slowly moving out
Issued Oct. 25, covering Oct. 25 to Nov. 1
As is often the case at this time of the year, the weather models got the general picture right, but the finer details were much to be desired. Usually, the models struggle with the forecast beyond two to five days out, but for much of this forecast period they struggled with the finer details on […] Read more

Prairie Forecast Update: Cold and some snow coming
Issued Oct. 22, covering Oct. 22 to 25
I have been waiting to see if the weather models were going to come into agreement on the upcoming shift on our weather pattern and for the most part, they have: it’s going to get cold! A large area of low pressure has formed over the eastern Arctic and the counterclockwise rotation around that low […] Read more

AgriRecovery feed, freight, breeding herd aid set for Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C.
Feds, provinces announce combined $365 million in aid programs
The federal and Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia governments are jointly putting up $365 million to support ranchers and farmers up against this summer’s drought and wildfire damage. The feds on Friday announced their 60 per cent, or $219 million, share of AgriRecovery program funding for the three westernmost provinces. “I’ve had the opportunity to […] Read more

Low water on Mississippi to persist despite improved drought outlook
Risk of getting stuck mean less grain per barge
Chicago | Reuters — Low water levels on the lower Mississippi River are likely to persist through at least January despite expected above-normal precipitation across the southern U.S. this winter, forecasters with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Thursday. The severe to exceptional drought choking the lower Mississippi River valley is expected to […] Read more

El Nino worries Brazil soy farmers as planting progresses, grain lobby says
Dry weather has pushed back planting
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Soybean farmers in top growing state Mato Grosso worry that scarce rains and high temperatures will lead to replanting of some areas while lowering yields in others, local grain farmer lobby Aprosoja-MT said Thursday. The unusual heat and dryness has been linked to the El Nino weather pattern, which is […] Read more

CBOT weekly outlook: Corn rangebound, soybeans rising, wheat erratic
Chicago wheat fluctuation 'just drives you nuts'
MarketsFarm — While soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade have moved higher over the past week, corn was rangebound and wheat lacked any clear direction in choppy trade, making it hard to predict where values may go from here, according to Scott Capinegro of Barrington Commodities in Barrington, Ill. Capinegro said the December […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Warmer, colder… then snow?
Issued Oct. 18, covering Oct. 18-25
Not surprisingly for this time of the year, the last forecast didn’t play out exactly as expected, but overall, it was pretty darn close. The large area of high pressure that was forecasted to develop over the northern Prairies and slowly drop southward did just as forecast, but over the first few days the high […] Read more

Brazil tells landowners to stop setting fires in Amazon ‘climate emergency’
Properties could be embargoed, agency says
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s government told ranchers and farmers on Friday to stop setting fire to the Amazon rainforest as clouds of dense gray smoke make the air increasingly unbreathable in the northern city of Manaus, threatening sanctions if they do burn areas of land. “Fire is not natural in the Amazon, it […] Read more

Extreme rainfall and a warming planet
Changes to the jet stream could slow storm systems and result in more heavy rainfalls
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Factors resulting in extreme rainfall events range from lots of atmospheric moisture to different triggers such as orographic or frontal lift, instability, speed of storm systems, and the training of thunderstorms. We will look at the different weather patterns that tend to be associated with rainfall and tie in changing weather patterns […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Sprawling high to bring dry, seasonably warm weather
Issued Oct. 11, covering Oct. 11-17
For the first time in a while, the last forecast period did not play out exactly as the weather models predicted, thanks mostly to a strong area of low pressure that moved westwards from the Atlantic into central Ontario last weekend and into the first half of this week. While the low didn’t impact the […] Read more