Throwing it back to ’66 LIVE! with Drew Lerner: hail, excessive wind, and La Nina

Do you remember 1966? You can be forgiven if you don’t, but Drew Lerner, weather guru with World Weather Inc., says the first half of 2020 is shaping up to be very similar to that year. What does that mean for crop growing weather, hail, rainfall amounts, and more? Listen/watch below to this Tuesday, June 16th, edition of RealAg LIVE! Q&A.

Don’t forget to tune in across social media at 1 pm Mountain to hear from our latest guest — tomorrow, hear from the Canola Council’s Autumn Barnes!

(Summary is below the video)

  • Conditions for first half of 2020 line up with 1966, believe it or not, with all these shots of cold air across the Canadian Prairies. The big rain events and snow events works out very similar to ’66
  • It’s interesting, because the 60s were actually a very cold decade, es
  • Especially vs. what we’ve seen the last twenty years
  • If that’s the case….how did the year end up? Lerner says, on a drier bias. The Prairies have a band of really active weather happening, too. Some heat and dryness in eastern Prairies, and then will shift west to Alberta.
  • Lloydminster to Edmonton north, Edmonton to Red Deer west is really the worst for Alberta, and it’s just too darn wet. Abandonment of some acres happening for sure.
  • Shots of cool air are going to be welcome because they’re going to generate some rain when they’re needed
  • BUT there may be a ridge that builds in the U.S. in July which could mean the eastern Prairies could turn quite dry
  • Better mix of weather ahead for Ontario, and much better than last year. More calm weather through fall.
  • Most of the active weather should stay south to the U.S. would should be favourable for making hay
  • Patience, will pay, you’ll be able to see the windows in the forecast and count on some dry days to get rolling
  • What’s with all this wind? Well, excessive wind is usually associated with a drought. In the 80s, we saw this. Wind howling from morning to night, means drying out soil, and you eventually exhaust moisture sources, which can cause issues with dryness, for sure
  • The wind is symptomatic of something much larger…dun, dun, dun.
  • What about southwest Saskatchewan? Tired of snow in late September, says farmer Jim Hale
  • There’s an evolving La Nina event, tends to reduce moisture in the air, and will have a positive impact on early fall weather
  • What happened with this huge weather event last week? The storm cell should have moved from Montana to Manitoba and everyone would have got some rain, instead, the ridge moved straight north and then over. And all of it landed in one spot stuck against the mountains and hit Calgary and other areas of Alberta. Western Canada is getting more like the U.S. Midwest every year
  • Watch for another ridge developing next month. We thought Saskatchewan was going to be hit, but it really did shift west, and may continue to for the remainder of the year
  • Hurricane season? It’s going to be an interesting one, and likely very active —9 hurricanes, 3 major, predicted. Lower east coast threatened. Close to 2005 season, possibly.
  • What about our competitor markets? Weather in the Black Sea region, for example?
  • India is in good shape (sorry, y’all).
  • La Nina will likely persist through this coming winter, and that means extreme cold in Canada

Check out WorldWeather.cc for more from Drew Lerner!

Wake up with RealAgriculture

Subscribe to our daily newsletters to keep you up-to-date with our latest coverage every morning.

Wake up with RealAgriculture