Central Region Drought Deepens, Expands in November

The jury remains out on December, but November saw an expansion of dryness and drought across portions of Ontario and Quebec. 

According to the latest monthly update of the Canadian drought monitor, 87% of the agricultural lands in the central region – which includes both Ontario and Quebec - were being impacted by abnormal dryness or some form of drought as of the end of last month. That is up sharply from 57% at the end of October and one-third at the end of September. 

Following an overly wet summer, much of the central region was unusually dry through the fall. That helped to speed the harvest but has led to the development of unfavourable dryness heading into the winter season. 

Along with warmer than normal temperatures, central portions of southern Ontario, the northern shore of Lake Ontario and throughout southwestern Quebec received only 40 to 60% of normal precipitation in November. 

Most notably, two pockets of severe drought have now developed, one extending outward from the Lake Huron shoreline around Goderich, and the other around Kingston (see map below). There was also significant expansion of severe drought in southern Quebec, around Montreal, the monitor shows. 

Some portions of southern Ontario did see heavy snow in the early days of December, but the largest amounts were relatively localized.