Watch above: Saskatchewan is setting records when it comes to the lack of moisture so far this season. Meaghan Craig finds out, with some rain finally in the forecast, whether we can make up for lost ground.
SASKATOON – It’s three simple words that have become synonymous with our summer in Saskatchewan: pray for rain. From farmers to firefighters, a good slow rain is desperately needed in our province, including urban areas.
In fact, any amount of rain, anywhere in Saskatchewan would be better than nothing.
“Thing that is different about this year is normally in May and June and usually into early July we see what are called upper lows,” said Terri Lang, an Environment Canada meteorologist.
READ MORE: Driest May on record in Saskatoon may turn into warm, dry summer
“These are these rain makers that come in, they sit over the province, they sit over the prairies for a couple days and they produce a lot of rain over a large area, we haven’t seen that so far this summer.”
Instead what meteorologists say is happening is scattered showers that are hit and miss throughout the province and extremely dry conditions. Saskatoon continues to slowly sizzle it’s way into the history books and has been since the spring.
“May saw the driest May on record. June saw the fifth driest June on record and so far into July we’re still lacking some precipitation,” added Lang.
Here’s a look at just how little it has rained each month:
Normally, Saskatoon sees 166.3 millimetres of rain, that’s nine times more than we’ve seen so far.
To put things into perspective, over the past few months, Saskatoon has seen desert-like rainfall amounts. At times, Las Vegas’ normal precipitation levels have exceed that of what Saskatoon has received. In the months of May, Las Vegas gets 6.096 mm of rain on average, in Saskatoon we received just 0.4 mm.
“When you’re lacking the moisture, it makes it harder for the atmosphere to actually produce the moisture,” said Lang.
READ MORE: Majority of Saskatchewan crops in poor to good condition
City officials say as a result of the dry spell water consumption among residents in Saskatoon has surged.
“On our higher maximum daily demands we’ve been running around 240 million litres per day to 250 million litres per day and our plant capacity is approximately 280 million litres per day so we do have reserve but it’s getting closer,” said Reid Corbett, director of Saskatoon Water.
During a summer with normal precipitation levels, residents would go through 180-190 million litres per day. In the winter, those numbers drop to 120 million litres per day.
Flowing at 60 cubic meters per second, the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency says the South Saskatchewan River hasn’t been this low since 2001 and it’s the sixth lowest peak elevation at Lake Diefenbaker in 45 years.
READ MORE: Water needs met, but lake levels dropping: agency
Still, Corbett says on extremely hot days like last Friday and Saturday, 4.5 per cent of the total river flow is being extracted and it’s unclear if water usage this summer has peaked since August could be just as hot.
“The first restriction we can implement is limiting parks watering, which is our number one customer,” said Corbett.
Meteorologists say the long-range forecast calls for cooler, wetter conditions and thundershowers this week.
“It’s a blessing and a curse when it comes to thundershower activity especially in the north because sometimes, some of these thundershowers produce a lot of lightening but not a lot of rain,” said Lang.
Lang added when they do, they can produce a lot of rain and have the the potential to help save parts of Saskatchewan, even extinguish the seven new fires sparked by lightening overnight on Sunday.
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