It was a warm and dry July for the province according to Andy Yun, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“It turns out for most areas in the southern Grain Belt, temperatures were pretty much above normal through the area.”
Moose Jaw trended slightly warmer than normal at an average of 20 degrees. At 0.7 degrees warmer than normal, this made for the city’s 45th warmest July in 129 years.
“A lot of the really warm temperatures ended up being over in northern Saskatchewan," said Yun.
Meadow Lake saw its warmest July in 76 years with a monthly mean temperature of 19.5 degrees Celsius – that's 2.8 degrees warmer than normal.
La Ronge similarly saw its warmest July in 60 years at an average of 20.5 degrees – a departure of 3 degrees above normal.
Yun said the warm air came into the province from the southern United States. “It was actually a lot of warm air through Western Canada too. For example, just further west across the border into Alberta – there were a lot of areas in Alberta that did set records for the warmest July ever recorded.”
The warmer air also impacted precipitation, leading to a lack of moisture. “Some areas maybe were lucky to see some spotty showers or thundershowers through the area.”
“Estevan area was the driest ever recorded.” With only 1.7 mm of rain over the month, this marked Estevan’s driest July in 112 years. Normal precipitation is 67.5 mm for the area, which means July was only 3 per cent of normal.
Key Lake also saw its driest July in 48 years at 24.7 mm for the month. Typical precipitation amounts to 88.3 mm, and they were only 28 per cent of normal.
It was the 8th driest July in 131 years for Moose Jaw, at 20 per cent of normal. We got 12.7 mm of precipitation over the month, where 63 mm is considered normal.
Yun said we’re expecting to see more of the same for the next month. “We’re looking at above-normal temperatures through the period and below normal precipitation.”