GrainsWest Spring 2018

Spring

2018

grainswest.com

HE FORTUNES OF ALBERTA FARMERS ARE

perennially subject to the wild whims of the

weather. The province’s uniquely variable

meteorological movements have forced climate

scientists to continually beef up their data-gathering,

information-interpretation and prediction powers. While

actively changing the weather is possible in localized

measure, experts focus their energy on upgrading

forecasting technologies and updating weather models

that will give farmers the best information with which to

make agronomic decisions.

Dan Kulak, an Edmonton-based meteorologist with

Environment Canada, said the Rocky Mountains are

largely to blame for the unpredictability of Alberta’s

weather. “The mountains rip those weather systems apart

and they re-form near Red Deer in a long north-south

corridor.”

As winter turns to spring, the re-forming of these

weather systems, combined with still-cool air

temperatures, can often result in springtime rain turning

to snowfall. “You want to have April showers bring May

flowers, but often in Alberta it’s May snow,” Kulak added.

The accumulation of snow combined with subsequent

rainfall can create flood conditions, Kulak said. He also

noted the foothills receive high precipitation levels and,

depending on which river the rain and snowmelt flows

into, flooding can occur.

Terry Young grows wheat, barley, faba beans and

canola near Penhold. “Variableness is the key to weather

in Alberta,” he said. Young pointed to Environment

Canada’s weather updates. Delivered throughout the

day, he noted each can be completely different. “Every

forecast is changed from the last. You get up in the

morning and you think you’re going to go cut some hay,

and then the next forecast, it’s completely changed,”

Young said.

For Ralph Wright, manager of Alberta Agriculture and

Forestry’s Alberta Climate Information Service (ACIS),

an online interactive weather tool that features historical

and real-time meteorological data, looking at historical

weather data is just as important as the current weather

forecast, if not more so. Wright also said real-time

weather can be critically important in aiding decision-

making in the field.

“I imagine that every day every farmer wakes up and

wonders, ‘What’s the weather going to be like?’ What they

are missing is what was the weather like? Did it rain last

night? How long has it been since it rained on my corn field

that’s down the road that I haven’t visited for a week?”

Knowing such weather information for a specific field

can help guide decisions depending on the time of year,

helping farmers choose whether to spray or wait, irrigate

or not, harvest or hold off, Wright said.

ACIS information can also be used in concert with

analytics on yields, he noted. At the end of the growing

season, farmers can use collected data to determine the

effects of weather on individual fields. Combined with

management records, the historical weather data can be a

powerful farmmanagement tool.

The collection of meteorological information at ACIS

generates a long-term view of weather trends in specific

areas, Wright said. With 12,000 maps of Alberta weather

and climate-related information as part of the ACIS

information trove, he said his job is to continue collecting

data over the “long, long, long term” in order to develop

quality historical weather data.

“Do not take the last months of weather to try to predict

the next month of weather, because it just doesn’t happen

that way anymore,” Wright said. Weather data extending

back to the early 1960s can now be used to track trends

and improve the accuracy of predictions.

Wright said ACIS emerged in 2002, the same year the

Prairies experienced one of the biggest droughts in years.

Albertans were left without detailed historical weather

data or current information on weather conditions in

specific areas around the province, so the drought—while

devastating for crops—helped solidify the need for ACIS,

he said.

Since then, ACIS has strengthened its network

of weather stations to 400-plus, all measuring air

temperature, wind speed and precipitation levels.

Around 40 of the stations also record soil moisture and

soil temperature data, and approximately 80 measure

solar radiation. All capture radar imagery,