Prairie dryness and drought continued to shrink in December, but trouble spots remain.
The latest monthly update of the Canadian drought monitor showed 25% of Prairie agricultural lands were being impacted by abnormal dryness or some form of drought as of the end of last month, down from 34% in November and 57% in October.
But while parts of Alberta received as much as twice the normal amount of precipitation in December, the chronically dry southwestern portion of the province was short-changed again, receiving less than 40% of normal and resulting in the continuation of abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions.
Meanwhile, abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions also remained along the southern border of Saskatchewan in the central and eastern regions of the province despite near normal precipitation in December – mostly due to earlier dry weather. In southern Manitoba, December precipitation was highly variable with some regions recording normal and others recording below normal precipitation.
As shown on the map below, abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions are impacting portions of northwestern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan.
