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SALUTE TO AGRICULTURE
Friday, March 16, 2018
Weather Watch: Climatologist David Phillips delivers “fearless forecast” to farmers Kelly Running Observer Staff
David Phillips – weather commentator, author, and Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada – recently swung though Saskatchewan as part of a prairie speaking tour. And at Arcola’s recent Moose Mountain Ag Day, Phillips says that wherever he travels in Canada, weather is the top topic of conversa-
tion. “It’s a favourite topic of conversation among Canadians and it’s an even more important topic for farmers,” he says. As part of what he called his “fearless forecast,: Phillips says that the weather outlook for Saskatchewan farmers was a “good news-bad news” scenario. “The character of weather has changed,” he says. “There are ex-
tremes of weather and they seem to be more volatile. Everybody’s been hit by this greater volatility – including farmers.” Farmers can deal with variability, but still expect some normality,” continues Phillips. “But it’s almost as if normal doesn’t occur anymore. We’ve had some of the driest growing seasons and some of the wettest growing seasons… And that volatility is the joker
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Weather commentator, author and climatologist David Phillips entertained and informed producers at Arcola’s Moose Mountain Ag Day – a stop on his recent speaking swing through the Prairies. As a Senior Climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, Phillips says the only constant for producers when it comes to weather are “challenges and opportunities.” in the weather deck.” “How can we see this variability?” asks Phillips. “We looked at 70 years (of weather records) from the Prairies. We took the 10 driest seasons and the 10 wettest seasons in this part of Canada over 70 years.” “Over half of (extreme wet or dry sea-
sons) have occurred in the last 17 years and the other half occurred in the early 53 years over those past 70 years. Since 2000, we’ve had more back-to-backs. That is, a really wet year followed by a really dry year, instead of a more gradual change.” “It’s clear that the current situation dem-
onstrates that this area (southern Saskatchewan) has been through a long period of drought without adequate precipitation. From November 2016 to January 2018, we haven’t seen drier conditions in Regina, Swift Current, and Moose Jaw since the 1880s.
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