Environment Canada's long-range weather forecast is predicting a warmer than average rest of the summer, with high temps continuing into the start of harvest. But the good news: not as much rain as the Parkland has been getting.
Janelle Gurgley, Meteorologist with Environment Canada, said though it won't be that much warmer in the big picture, it'll be noticeable.
"Looking at our long range models, we are suggesting that it's going to be a warmer than average remainder of the summer, and even going into fall, as it does cover July, August, and the month of September...as for precipitation, there's not really a good signal, so it likely will be around normal. Normal for Dauphin I know, and for much of the Parkland, would be maybe around sixty millimetres for a month," said Gurgley.
Gurgley also said to take their long range forecast with a grain of salt. It's very difficult to reliably forecast the weather that far in advance.
"For one picture to cover three months is very hard to do, and maybe over the span of three months it does average out to be correct, but of course we can see significant events on one day, and then not for the remainder of the ninety days," said Gurgley.
Recent weather in the Parkland can only be described as severe on both ends of the spectrum, from thunderstorms to heat waves. Gurgley said now that we're entering a time of year when crops are growing rapidly, and putting off lots of moisture into the air, that has the potential to make any storms a bit worse.
"All that evapotranspiration, transpiring off of plants, is adding moisture to the air, which is adding fuel to your thunderstorms. So when the conditions are right, it makes for more powerful and severe thunderstorms," said Gurgley.
At a glance: the rest of the summer here in the Parkland won't see as much rain as earlier in the year, but the temperatures will be a little bit hotter than normal.
