Following a summer of little or no rain across a big swath of Western Canada, mother nature made up for lost time over the past 24 hours.
Many regions of Alberta were drenched with upwards of 70 millimetres of rain. In Saskatchewan, vicious storms brought hail and even tornadoes to some areas along Highway 1 yesterday afternoon. In parts of BC the rain was so heavy that water was gushing up through the sewer system and tossing 300-pound manhole covers like they were dimes. The stormy weather, ushering out the huge high-pressure system that seemed to dominate our weather for most of the summer with record heat and little moisture.
As we know, for many producers the rain is coming much too late to help this year's crops. It will add moisture to the soil and hopefully it's only the start as we head into the fall in less than a month. Melanie Wowk, the chair of Alberta Beef producers says it's been a very stressful year for ranchers. Many are being forced to sell of parts of their herd as their options for feed are limited right now. Shipments of hay from the Maritimes are starting to arrive on the prairies, but there's only so much to go around.
Melanie shared that hopefully with all this moisture and the fact we still have a month of summer to go, there's a chance it might help some pastures.
She says there's no question this has been a very stressful time for the industry, and some might call it quits, but she's confident others will try to hang on as best they can.
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