Drew Lerner with World Weather Inc says we can expect to finish off the Month of March in the prairies with a cool bias.
"We'll probably get into a warm-up just a little bit as we go into April, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the eastern portions of the prairies turn cooler again in the second half of April. We're kind of watching for that. There's a repeating pattern in the atmosphere that at least up until now is showing up about every 62 days. So we think that it'll show itself again in the second half of April, This will impact Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, far more than it would in Alberta."
He points out that in Manitoba there's a lot of moisture in the ground which is going to be of some benefit when it comes to seed.
"We are also quite concerned about the Red River Basin down extending into the US. A lot of snow is on the ground and it's been cold. We're not going to melt that snow very quickly in these next few weeks, so the odds become higher that we'll suddenly get a big warm surge and will melt a lot of that snow all at once. So that's going to create a little bit of a flood potential for southern Manitoba."
There's also quite a bit of snow on the ground in Eastern Saskatchewan, but he's concerned about the drier areas in the west-central and southwest corner of the province.
"We do have a big concern about getting enough moisture to come into those dry biased areas to help get us started in the field work this spring. That is a big concern because I think as we go forward to at least the balance of this month, we're not going to see any major storm systems coming along. As we go into April, we might get a storm or two to develop because of the warm-up and then the cooling that comes in behind that."
He thinks we'll see a lit bit of moisture and be able to plant but there's a lot of concern as to whether or not there will be good follow-up moisture.
"Farther to the West in Alberta. I think we're probably going to see the Peace country and some of the northern parts of the province experiencing some warmer bias conditions as we go deeper into the spring."
Lerners says that will melt the snow there, so they should have good moisture to get started with.