Prairie Weather

The Prairies are mostly dry this morning with only a few scattered light showers in northeastern Saskatchewan. The forecast is calling for mostly dry weather this week as a high pressure ridge dominates the weather picture in the region. The only systems expected to travel through the northern regions of the Prairies later this week. The precipitation is mostly expected to fall north and east of the northern growing areas. Amounts in the north will be mostly in the 10 to 15 mm range of water equivalent precipitation.

Temperatures were mild during the weekend and the temperatures pushing above the freezing mark in the east and in the mid single digits to low teens in the west. The warm weather will continue this week with highs expected to reach the low to mid single digits. The mild temperatures will continue to melt the existing snowpack this week.

The long term forecast continues to indicate that a major pattern chance will occur in the third week of February. Temperatures will drop to below normal levels during the third week of February. The positive news is that temperatures are normally much higher in late February than in January. The storm track in the third week of February is expected to travel along the northern Plains and southern Prairies during late February. This should bring some much needed moisture to southern areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan.