April precipitation across Western Canada saw the more northern regions getting shortchanged compared to the south.
As can be seen on the map below, a large band extending from the Peace region in the west to portions of Manitoba’s Interlake region in the east only saw 40% or less of normal precipitation during the month.
Precipitation across much of central and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan was closer to normal, although there were still some isolated pockets of drier weather as well. Much of Manitoba received below normal amounts in April too, but with the driest conditions further north.
According to the latest monthly Canadian Agriculture Weather Prognosticator from World Weather, some moisture deficits remain in east-central and southern Alberta and across much of the Peace River Region. On the other hand, some of the greatest soil moisture present at the end of April was noted in portions of southern Manitoba and in a few areas scattered around in central portions of Alberta and east central into southeastern Saskatchewan.
Most of the Prairies are forecast to see very warm temperatures this weekend and parts of next week, with some readings reaching to or near 30 degrees C, which will admittedly raise concern in those areas that are still too dry.
However, the Prognosticator said the month of May should bring timely and relatively well distributed rainfall across much of Western Canada. A couple of exceptions could be the northern Peace region and southern Manitoba, where amounts might be lighter than usual.
