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Prairie forecast: More much-needed moisture expected

Issued Feb. 29, covering Feb. 29 to March 6, 2024

Cold Arctic air has invaded the Prairies much to many people’s surprise. We have gotten so used to mild spring-like weather that some people may be put off that winter has returned. For those who read my last column, this type of weather shouldn't be surprising since we are now moving into what can be the snowiest time of the year.



Prairie forecast update: Storms roll in

Prairie forecast update: Storms roll in

Updates forecast issued Feb. 21, 2024

The weather models are coming into agreement with up coming storm system. The low was forecasted to develop over southern Alberta on Sunday with widespread snow developing to the north and west of the low. This placed the Edmonton region in the main snow band with 10 or so centimetres forecasted to fall across this region. The snow should move out quickly on Monday as cold arctic air pours southwards behind the low dropping temperatures to below average, but only for a couple of day.


At Lethbridge just one year in the past 10 booked above-normal precipitation during its growing season.

A decade of dry

Let's review the variability of weather and soil moisture at Lethbridge

Weather is often the greatest factor that influences crop production across the Prairies — in particular, growing season precipitation and level of heat. The southern Prairies, particularly the regions of the Brown and Dark Brown soil zones, have the lowest growing-season precipitation, in the range of 150 to 200 mm (six to eight inches) and […] Read more



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Prairie forecast: Mild start, then a chance of storms

Issued Feb. 21, covering Feb. 21 to 28, 2024

Sunshine prevailed a fair bit more over the last forecast period than expected and so did the milder temperatures. Oh, sure there were a couple of cold nights, especially over the eastern half of the prairies, but overall, temperatures ended up being about 2 to 4 C warmer than what was forecasted.




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Prairie forecast: Dry and mild west, seasonal east

Issued Feb. 14, covering Feb 14 to 21, 2024

If you haven’t noticed, it has been an unusual winter, and that unusualness is causing all sorts of headaches with weather forecasting. In particular, cloud cover. In the last forecast period, it looked as if high pressure would dominate the weather bringing plenty of clear skies along with more seasonable temperatures.