Farmer Dick Wellman is patiently watching the skies as he looks for signs of Mother Nature’s most valuable resource.
“We need moisture,” Wellman said. “This is the driest of the dry.”
Wellman has owned a half-acre of land just outside of Regina since the early ’90s.
The organic farmer grows wheat, barley, peas and other crops on his property.
Wellman is one of many farmers looking skyward as drought conditions take hold of the province.
Saskatoon and Moose Jaw had the driest spring ever recorded for the cities.
Other parts of the province were nearly as dry as Swift Current, North Battleford and Key Lake experienced their third-driest spring, while Regina posted its eighth-driest spring.
However, an optimistic mid-June forecast offered a glimpse of rain relief, but in some areas of the province, it never arrived.
“We were in this dry slot that extended right through southern and central Saskatchewan,” Global News meteorologist Peter Quinlan said.
Up to 65 millimeters of rain fell in parts of Saskatchewan from June 14-16 while Regina received only trace amounts.
Quinlan says more than 200 millimeters of rain is needed to help ease drought conditions in southern Saskatchewan.
“Regina has only seen three per-cent of the normal amount of moisture in June which is normally the wettest month of the year,” Quinlan added.
As the summer season approaches, Wellman remains optimistic with the forecast calling for more precipitation in the coming weeks.
“It will come,” Wellman said. “The rain will come.”
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