Weather advice

Drew Lerner with World Weather Incorporated out of Topeka, Kansas spoke last night to over 500 people attending the Special Session of Crop Production Week in Saskatoon. There were lots of charts and graphs and weather theories, but there were also take home messages from the presentation. Lerner predicts cool weather in the early spring will hamper drying even though precipitation in that time frame may be relatively light. Of course, the extremely wet conditions in the eastern prairies will make it tough to seed a lot of last year’s flooded acres. Lerner says don’t wait for optimum seeding conditions or you may miss your opportunity. Expect regular rain throughout the summer. June and early July may see some warm conditions, but we may lose the heat in the late summer. Harvest will not be as wet as 2010, but there will still be dodge ball harvesting as we try to work around showers. Overall, despite a wet bias in the summer, Drew Lerner is predicting that we’ll have a better growing season. What about global warming? Lerner says the people who believe so fervently in global warming should realize there are a lot of factors at work including the intensity of the sun and the direction of the arctic oscillation. As last night’s crowd demonstrated, we sure like to talk about the weather. I’m Kevin Hursh.