Assahafa.com
The numbers don’t always tell the story.
This was true with Saskatchewan’s weather at points throughout 2024.
Data shows a few months this year had average temperatures and amounts of precipitation — sometimes for the first time in a while.
But hidden within those months were some wild extremes.
January temperature swing
Saskatchewan’s weather in November and December 2023 was highly influenced by a strong El Niño pattern.
Many locations experienced a brown Christmas for the first time in years, with temperatures trending much warmer than normal.
But as January arrived, so too did the traditional cold and snowy winter.
Southwest and west-central Saskatchewan experienced a mid-January cold snap not seen in a very long time.
It’s cold outside but the action was heating up at the Yara Centre in Moose Jaw. This weekend 20 teams from across the Prairies as well as a pair of teams from the U.S. are taking part in the 3rd annual ‘Battle of the Prairies’ football tournament. The players from California had to battle the players on the field but also the fridgid weather and a bit of culture shock.
Leader, approximately 150 kilometres northwest of Swift Current, recorded its lowest temperature ever early on Jan. 14 — hitting -46.4 C. Its lowest windchill factor ever was also recorded that morning at -56 C.
But just two weeks later, that part of the province saw record warmth.
Maple Creek went from -32.6 C on Jan. 12 to 21.1 C on Jan. 30 — the warmest January temperature ever recorded in Saskatchewan and the second-warmest in Canada.
Almost 70 other temperature records fell during the five-day warm spell.
From drought fears to spring soaking
The El Niño pattern began breaking down in March, but not before giving Saskatchewan one of its warmest and driest winters on record.
Many locations were 4 C to 5 C warmer than average and some places barely got half of the average moisture they normally receive. It was making a bad drought situation in the province even worse.
But the breakdown in the El Niño pattern resulted in the return of much-needed rain across Saskatchewan.
Around 80 millimetres fell in some parts of the province during the first week of May.
Some areas received above average May rainfall for the first time in several years — with the Battlefords receiving double its average.
It quickly became too much of a good thing. A deluge in late June flooded fields and roads in west central Saskatchewan, with some places receiving 100 to 200 mm of rain in less than 24 hours — more than a summer’s worth of rain in some cases.
Jenny Hagan describes what she has seen Friday as West-Central Saskatchewan received heavy rainfall.
Still, the rain was beneficial in replenishing the province’s rivers and lakes.
John Pomeroy, director of the USask Centre for Hydrology, said Lake Diefenbaker, a critical water reservoir, is now about three metres higher than it was in December 2023.
“It’s actually at its sort of highest level normally recorded for this time of year,” said Pomeroy. “So we’re in excellent shape for Lake Diefenbaker in supplying water through the province for next year.”
He said higher-than-normal snow packs in much of the southern half of the province — combined with frozen soil from fall rains — could mean higher runoff come spring.
“But so many things could happen over the winter,” Pomeroy said. “We certainly do have some conditions that would mean this spring will be one to keep an eye on.”
Rain good for fields, but not everyone benefits
Data from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) shows the rain eliminated drought in many areas of the province.
About 77 per cent of Saskatchewan farms were experiencing some level of drought in November 2023.
By November 2024, that number had dropped to around 10 per cent.
No farms were classified as having severe to exceptional drought by the end of November 2024 — something more than 25 per cent of farms were dealing with the year prior.
Spring moisture changes the game for the Prairies. But how long will it last?
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Trevor Hadwen, an agro-climate specialist with AAFC, said snow on the ground now will provide beneficial soil moisture for farmers come planting time in the spring.
But Hadwen said drought is still possible, as climate change causes major swings in weather patterns.
“We’re going from extreme dry conditions to extreme wet conditions much more quickly and much more frequently than we used to,” said Hadwen.
That exact scenario played out in the summer — Saskatchewan went from a cooler and wetter than expected June, to a hot and dry July and August.
Estevan and Key Lake had their driest July on record, while La Ronge and Meadow Lake had their warmest July.
Environment and Climate Change Canada says daytime highs are forecast to be about 30 C to 35 C this week, with the potential for some temperature records to be broken during the coming days.
The sudden switch was hard on canola crops, according to Bill Prybylski, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“There are parts of the province where canola traditionally isn’t … grown but it has been in the last few years where the canola yields were very poor,” Prybylski said.
Overall, he said the wet spring gave most farmers a better yield than last year, but moisture during the summer was very isolated.
“It’s an old saying that we were half an inch [of rain] away from a bumper crop and a half an inch of rain away from a disaster,” Prybylski said.
The dry summer — in addition to a dry early spring — also contributed to another intense forest fire season.
According to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, there were 576 wildfires in the province in 2024 — above the five-year average of 406, and more than last year’s total of around 500.
Natural Resources Canada says preliminary data shows just shy of 1.1 million hectares of land burned in the province in 2024 — below last year’s record-setting 1.8 million hectares.
Data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre shows the area of land in Saskatchewan burned by fires in 2024 was about 70 per cent higher than the 25-year average.
“These conditions are in line with trends observed since 1950, as average and extreme values of fire-weather conditions are increasing significantly in the northern half of Saskatchewan and Manitoba,” Yan Boulanger, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, said in a statement to CBC News.
Scorching weather extends into fall
Almost every day in September was above average for most locations in Saskatchewan.
Intense heat lasted through the month, with 30 C weather extending into October — and some locations reporting 20 C weather nearly up to Halloween.
September’s summer-like climate spawned severe weather, with thunderstorms occurring late in the season, and one of the latest tornadoes on record in the province touching down near Whitewood on Sept. 18.
That tornado was the result of a large low pressure system that also dumped another round of heavy rain on the province.
‘A rare event:’ 40-70 mm of rainfall expected in areas of southwest Saskatchewan
Fall heat breaks Estevan’s daily high record set 110 years ago
That system helped North Battleford achieve its third wettest September on record, with nearly triple the amount of rain it normally gets.
The unseasonably warmer and drier than normal weather continued until mid-November, when a series of snowstorms and much colder temperatures hit Saskatchewan.
As of Dec. 26, Regina has about 30 cm of snow on the ground — about triple the average snow pack for the end of December.
Environment and Climate Change Canada’s winter outlook now shows a better chance of above-average precipitation until the end of February. At the same time, there’s a better chance that temperatures will be above normal.
Source: cbc
