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Bow Island, Alberta | It’s been dry in most of the prairies for the last 2 months, just as the map shows. However, crops here basically grow on the moisture received from late August until early August of the next year. So those 2 months aren’t a big factor in the whole scheme of things, especially because they are relatively dry months to start with. So if you normally only get an inch of moisture in March, getting only 40% isn’t a big deal. However, when you usually get 4” in June, and only get 40%, then it’s problem.
A more useful map is the soil moisture at this time. That map looks fairly dry too, especially for the eastern prairies, where they usually have good soil moisture at this time. But if the months of May and June end up with 50% more than normal rainfall, it would probably make up for the last 6 months of drier than normal.
So no one is panicking yet, but there may be more people looking at their crop insurance coverage levels than there usually are. | |
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Canadian prairies
