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After a long, grey four-day period of clouds and soggy grounds, the sun is back out and drying up a wet Regina.
The rain started falling on Monday and it didn’t let up until Thursday evening, aside from a few brief pauses on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“(There were) a lot of wet hours. I think I counted them in Regina: 61 hours in that period,” Environment Canada’s David Phillips told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Friday.
“It wasn’t a flooding kind of rain. It was more of a soaking rain. It felt like Vancouver in January.”
At final count, 51 millimetres (or more than two inches) of rain fell on Regina.
Phillips said that despite the duration and amount of rainfall, it was needed because of how dry August was; only 20 millimetres of rain (just a touch over three-quarters of an inch) fell last month.
“My sense is if (this week’s rain) had carried on, if it had been monsoonal, then hey, that would be a problem. I think it’s moved on and we’re going to get some southwesterly air, and help dry things out,” he said.
The weather system was a big one centred over North Dakota, Phillips said.
“It was raining from Saskatchewan through northern Ontario and across the northern tiers of the United States,” he said.
“There were a lot of plumes of moisture coming up from Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, and it just came to resupply that system in a very slow motion.”
Environment Canada is predicting more sun and warm temperatures, at least for the next few days.
Highs should be in the mid-20s on Saturday and Sunday. The weather agency forecasts Monday to hit a high of 29 C.
All three days should be sunny.
Farmers embrace the sunshine
The sunshine in the forecast this weekend is welcome news for farmers across Saskatchewan.
Todd Lewis, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said the four straight days of rain has farmers itching to harvest.
“(Harvest) is not late yet, but it’s not early either,” he said Friday. “The crop has been out and ready in a lot of locations for a number of weeks now.”
Not only does the wet weather push producers behind schedule, but Lewis noted it can also lead to downgrading in crops, like barley.
“That’s money out of farmers’ pockets, so let’s hope (the crop damage is) minimal — but we won’t really know until we can get into the fields and find out the quality that the crop is in,” Lewis explained.
He added some producers — especially those in the eastern two-thirds of the province — won’t be able to get back in the field until things dry up, which could be another four or five days.
According to the province’s latest crop report out Thursday, 18 per cent of harvest is complete in Saskatchewan, which is significantly down from the five-year average (2014-18) of 43 per cent.
— With files from 980 CJME’s Jessie Anton and Evan Radford
