The Swift Current area went from being one of the driest growing seasons on record last year, to one of the wettest this year.
Herb Cutforth is an Agricultural Meteorologist at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre.
He says the long term mean for growing season precipitation from April 1st to August 31st is approximately 241 millimetres.
“This year we’ve had 423 over that same period, last year we had 194, so there is quite a difference. The real story is in the first three months of April, May and June. In the long-term that’s about 147 millimetres and this year we had 248 and last year we had only had 40 millimetres, so it’s complete polar opposites,” Cutforth said.
We are on track to be one of the wettest years on record, from January to August 31st this year we have received 451 millimetres of precipitation with a lot of that rain coming in July.
“In July this year it was 125 (millimetres) and in July last year it was 102 (millimetres), but 52 is the long-term mean, so we are almost twice the long-term mean both years,” Cutforth said.
Source : Discoverestevan