Crops decline as south Sask. sees little rain in July

If it feels like the Regina area hasn’t seen any rain this month, that’s because it practically hasn’t

According to Environment Canada, the Regina airport weather station has only recorded 0.2 millimetres of rain in the month of July.

Typically, the Regina area sees 67 millimetres – or almost three inches – of rain at this time of year.

Those hoping for the hot, dry weather to change shouldn’t hold their breath.

While Environment Canada called for a 60 per cent chance of a thunderstorm Thursday, meteorologist John Paul Cragg said it won’t bring enough precipitation for an entire region in need.

“With thunderstorms, the rainfall is over small areas, not over a widespread area so it’s not going to be the general soaker the area needs right now,” he explained. “One neighbourhood, one farm might see a lot of rain while areas around it see absolutely nothing.”

Looking ahead, Cragg said he couldn’t see anything notable in the way of rain.

“Almost nothing,” he admitted. “We seem to be in a pattern. We don’t have a lot of rainfall for southern Saskatchewan and one of the problems is that this lack of rainfall helps to perpetuate the lack of rainfall going into the future.”

Weekly crop report

The hot, dry conditions are wreaking havoc across the agriculture industry in the southern part of the province.

According to this week’s provincial crop report, crops conditions continue to deteriorate in many parts of the province due to the heat and lack of rain. For example, high temperatures have caused heat blasting damage in many flowering canola crops, according to the province.

Pasture conditions and topsoil moisture are also in decline due to the lack of rainfall.