Reading Time: < 1 minute A series of storms left a path of destruction in all three Prairie provinces from Aug. 19 to 25. More than one million acres were either damaged or destroyed by the storms bringing hail and strong winds, leading to more than 2,800 claims of crop damage, according to the Canadian Crop Hail Association (CCHA). “This […] Read more
Hail, strong winds damage Prairie crops
Prairie forecast: Summer weather not over yet
Reading Time: 2 minutes It looks like summer is not over yet. After a week of fairly unstable weather across much of the Prairies, it looks like we're moving into a period of stable warm weather to start September.
Prairie forecast: Warm but unsettled weather
Forecast issued Aug. 21, covering Aug. 21 to 28, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last week's forecast got off to a rough start. The area of low pressure that pushed through the eastern Prairies ended up as a large upper level low. Because those are slow to move out, they can affect systems trying to move east by backing them up or forcing them to take a different path. So, while the overall pressure pattern across the Prairies was still slack as forecasted, the details got all messed up.
Prairie forecast: Weak systems make for tricky forecast
Forecast issued Aug. 14, covering Aug. 14 to 21, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes The slack or weak pattern looks to continue into much of next week, which makes it difficult to pinpoint which areas could see showers or thunderstorms, and on which days. Best chances for precipitation look to be over the eastern Prairies. This type of pattern also makes it difficult to predict where forest fire smoke will be.
Prairie forecast: Temperatures to warm up
Forecast issued Aug. 7, covering Aug. 7 to 14, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes For this forecast period, it's looking like the forecasted strong area of high pressure is going to dominate the weather across the Prairies. This should bring plenty of sunshine and warming temperatures. Overnight lows look to be seasonable, so at this point it doesn't look like we'll see heat warnings—but as usual you just never know.
Prairie forecast: Cooler weather coming, but little precipitation
Forecast issued July 31, covering July 31 to August 7, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes It's looking like we'll soon see an end to the hot conditions of the last few weeks as upper ridging collapses and the upper flow across the Prairies moves to a straight west-to-east flow. Under this pattern, we should see textbook summer conditions. The only downside is there aren't many chances of precipitation.
Prairie forecast: Heatwave coming to an end
Forecast issued July 24 covering July 24 to 31, 2024
Reading Time: 4 minutes Southern Alberta, southern and central Saskatchewan and Manitoba will see another day or two of hot weather before the northern low drags a cold front southward, which will bring an end to this extended heatwave.
Prairie forecast: More typical summer weather
Forecast issued July 10, covering July 10 to 17, 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutes For this forecast period, it looks like the upper ridge will slowly flatten and drop southwards as a series of weak lows track across the northern Prairies. This will result in a reduction in the extreme temperatures. Daytime highs and overnight lows should fall back to more seasonable values.
Prairie drought conditions improve in June: AAFC
Reading Time: < 1 minute Above-normal precipitation and cooler temperatures helped drought conditions improve across most of the Canadian Prairies in June, according to the latest drought monitor report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada showing conditions as of June 30.
Prairie forecast: A switch in the weather pattern?
Forecast issued July 3, covering July 3 to 10, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes Over the last couple weeks, I've been asked repeatedly, “when will summer actually get here?” This is especially true over the eastern Prairies. It just doesn't and hasn’t felt like summer yet. Well, it looks like the cool, unsettled weather pattern will be breaking down during this forecast period. This will allow much more summer-like temperature to move in.
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
