For this forecast period, well, it's a bit of a mess. Overall, it looks like we could be stuck in a cool, wet pattern until the end of the month.
Tag Archives temperatures
Prairie forecast: Cool and unsettled weather across the Prairies
Prairie forecast: Mild with a chance of showers
A large area of low pressure stalled out just south of the Prairies early this week, bringing some much-needed significant rains that stretched from western Manitoba through Saskatchewan and into Alberta. This low is forecasted to rapidly break down over the next day or so and make way for some nice late-spring weather.
Prairie forecast: Cool and unsettled weather to continue
Forecast issued May 1, 2024, covering May 1-8
The weather and subsequent forecasts lately have been—to state it simply—a mess. A very active but difficult to forecast pattern has developed across much of Canada and the northern U.S. states. This has brought damp and cool weather to most regions of the Prairies and unfortunately, it looks like this weather will be sticking around at least until the weekend.
How do smoky skies affect corn crops?
Obscured sunlight and poorer air quality offer benefits as well as drawbacks for the plants
Occasional plumes of smoke from distant wildfires may affect human comfort — but how does a smoke-obscured sun and poor air quality affect crops? “This has been a big topic of conversation where I work in the state of Indiana,” says Dan Quinn, an assistant professor of agronomy and extension corn specialist at Purdue University. […] Read more
Prairie forecast: Typical spring weather expected; not dry, not wet
Forecast issued April 24, 2024; covering: April 24 – May 1
It looks like this will be a good news, bad news forecast. For those of you hoping for rain, it may be good news. For those wanting things to dry out enough to get out working, it's a bit of bad news. The one thing, which is typical for spring forecasts, is that there's a fair bit of uncertainty.
Avoid grain spoilage when temperatures get wild
Consider your bins when the weather swings from extreme cold to unseasonably warm
Glacier FarmMedia — With unusually high temperatures interrupted by two deep freezes, it’s been a challenging winter for grain storage on the Prairies, requiring diligence to protect stored crop. Anne Kirk, cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, advises aeration and vigilant monitoring of bin moisture and temperature. The latter is particularly important when outside temperatures […] Read more
Conditions ripe for winter cereal wreck
Snow cover decline, temperature flux, pooling, freezing all potential problems
Glacier FarmMedia — Minimal snow cover, frigid temperatures in mid-January and above-average temperatures after that may have set the stage for winterkill in winter crops. The risk is high enough to cause concern among crop specialists. “The eastern Prairies are in a little bit better shape than (Saskatchewan and Alberta) but there’s huge swaths that […] Read more
Prairie forecast: Effects of Colorado low to bring widespread precipitation
Forecast issued April 16, covering April 16 to 25, 2024
We are putting out this week’s forecast a day earlier than usual, as the weather models now have a good handle on the predicted Colorado low and how it will impact the Prairies starting Tuesday. Here is what the weather models are predicting.
The facts we stumble over
Why the frost on your windshield didn't kill your crop, and other nuggets of wisdom
When I undertook field research trials in Alberta in the 1970s on fungicides and insecticides for disease and insect control, I was often stymied by the Imperial (Canadian), U.S. and metric measurement systems. While the metric system was fairly straightforward and in its Canadian infancy, I had a hard time reconciling U.S. and Canadian measurement […] Read more
A climate update for our neck of the woods
You'll want to keep your long underwear handy for the next several winters
I have been tinkering with climate data for about the past 15 years. Thanks to the folks at the Swift Current, Sask. federal ag research station, I now have complete monthly temperature and precipitation data from 1886 to 2023. That adds five years to my last summary, so we will now do the update. Weather […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
