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It looks like Saskatchewan will get to enjoy an extended spell of warm, dry, fall weather after all and many farmers could not be happier.
Based on the forecast, much of the central and southern part of the province will be basking in double digit temperatures by the middle of this week. Some places, like North Battleford and Swift Current could hit 20 C on Wednesday.
Megz Reynolds farms barely, durum wheat, flax and lentils near Kyle, south of Rosetown.
“We are just about done. We have a half section of flax we have tried to get in a couple of times. Each time we try to get into it, we get rain or snow,” Reynolds said. “It’s pretty exciting, but I’m not sure we’re going to believe it’s actually here until it happens.”
For the past several weeks, daily highs for many in the province have not only been well below the yearly average, but they have also been accompanied by snow and rain, creating major challenges during the harvest.
Those challenges are especially being felt in north west Saskatchewan. Dolores Buckingham has a mixed grain farm north of North Battleford, near Rabbit Lake.
“Our harvesting has not been good this year. In our area, we’ve received a lot of rain and a lot of snow,” said Buckingham.
She said, even with the warm, dry weather, it will likely take at least another week of dry weather before they can get back out into the field.
She said their crops “never dried in the first place” because of the rain they got over the summer.
About two weeks ago, Environment Canada’s Chief Meteorologist David Phillips predicted this forecast.
“From mid-October to mid-November, we’re calling for it to be warmer than normal,” Phillips said.
It looks like that prediction is coming true.
The average daily high for this time of year for Saskatoon is about 10 C.
The forecast high for Saskatoon and Regina is expected to exceed that on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
“It will make a huge difference if we can get some wind with it to dry everything out,” Buckinghman said.
