MarketsFarm — Although the official calendar start to winter isn’t until Dec. 21, conditions on the Canadian Prairies are now winter-like, according to Weatherlogics chief scientist Scott Kehler.
“For the month of November, it looks like we’re off to a cold start for most of the Prairies. The western Prairies… had quite a significant winter storm,” Kehler said, noting another snowstorm already brewing for that part of the region.
“As we get later into the winter, December will probably be looking at this point, as a more normal month,” he added, calling for near normal amounts of precipitation, but becoming colder.
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Kehler said the winter of 2022-23 will be marked by another La Nina, the third in as many years, which he stressed is highly unusual.
“Right now, that looks like in the early part of winter it will probably not have as much impact, but as we get later in the winter the impact looks like cold weather,” he said.
That he said should generate more snow — something the western half of the Prairies is in dire need of, due to dry conditions going into fall.
“It’s probably going to be a snowy winter again, but I doubt it will be as snowy as last year,” Kehler said.
The Canadian Drought Monitor rated a lot of Alberta and Saskatchewan as being abnormally dry or in moderate or severe drought as of Sept. 30. One pocket centred on Swift Current, Sask. is in extreme drought; southern and northern areas of western Manitoba were abnormally dry.
Kehler also raised the strong likelihood of a major storm for the eastern Prairies by the end of the week of Nov. 6-12. After that, he expects active weather to calm down for a little while.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
