The Weather Network is predicting Alberta will see slightly above-normal temperatures this summer but possibly above-normal rainfall in the south.
“A changeable summer is expected across Alberta with back-and-forth temperature swings that come close to offsetting each other,” it said in its forecast for June to August. “Rainfall totals are expected to be near normal across much of the province, but areas near the U.S. border have the highest potential to be wetter than normal while areas northeast of Edmonton have the highest threat of being drier than normal.”
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It predicts the central and eastern Prairies will be on “the cool side of normal.”
But this forecast is less hopeful…
Environment Canada’s senior climatologist is forecasting it will be a hotter-than-usual summer across the Prairies.
In a series of interviews late last month, David Phillips said the dry conditions will likely persist, especially in Alberta but also throughout the West. The situation is especially dire in Saskatchewan, he said.
“They have never had three years in a row so dry,” Phillips told the Globe and Mail. “In the past 33 months, they have had less than half the precipitation that they would normally get.”
But the dryness is widespread, he added. “It’s almost as if nature has forgotten how to precipitate on the Prairies,” Phillips told a Saskatchewan radio station.
