Rain has finally fallen in Winnipeg — and in a rather generous amount — after a long summer drought for the city.
Environment Canada’s David Phillips told 680 CJOB that Winnipeg has experienced the worst summer weather in our history.
“Go back 150 years in Winnipeg. I defy anybody to find a worse 60 days in your history in terms of lack of rain and scorching temperatures,” Phillips said.
Winnipeg has received a total of 85.1 mm of precipitation over the weekend and more is expected to come within the coming days, particularly on Friday, according to Weather Expert Bruce Johnson.
“I think we may have another 20, 30, 40 mm or more because there’s another chance of rain tomorrow and then a bigger one on Friday and I think that’s going to be the bigger rain system and then maybe something on the weekend maybe not,” he said.
Johnson hopes after this bout of rain, things will clear up so that we don’t have any flooding or other extreme conditions that occur with too much rain.
“It seems to dry out a little bit…which hopefully it will.. because.. can’t have it rain forever, we’re gonna go from one extreme to the next.”
After two months of no showers on the horizon, the rain was a welcome sight for those who had been feeling the sting of the dry climate.
The agriculture industry has had a rough go of it this summer with the lack of moisture, and many farmers say it isn’t something that will be solved with just a few bouts of rain.
“Let me tell ya we could still use another three to four inches without fail… we were so far down that we’ll need another three to four inches just to replenish,” said agriculture reporter Harry Siemens
He adds the rain has arrived too late to salvage this year’s crops but there are some crops that can certainly benefit from the recent showers.
“There are still some crops out there like corn, soybeans, sunflowers, beans that can benefit from this moisture,”
Although the rain hasn’t been able to repair what is already damaged it certainly is helping to put farmers on a good footing for next year’s harvest as noted by Phillips on August 20.
“I’m sure that farmers are pleased, because this is moisture they can use for next year, and of course even for non-ag purposes, for example, foundations, river flows filling up…. This is kind of a good news situation.”
Comments