Bless the rains down in Alberta: farmers welcome intense precipitation after drought

Drop by drop, the heavy rainfall in Edmonton this week is washing away most concerns farmers had going into the spring.

Scott Jespersen, a farmer west of Edmonton, says the amount of moisture the province is getting is the perfect way to start the season.

“Right now, I don’t think any farmer in the province is going to be complaining about any of the moisture. It is perfect,” Jespersen, the vice-Chair of Alberta Grains, told CityNews. “We are in a provincewide drought. At this moment, there’s not enough rain that can come right now. So we’re off to a really good start.”

The rainfall in Alberta breaks a dry spell, with the province previously battling drought conditions – as are many parts of Canada.

“Lack of rain pretty much impacts yield, which impacts the amount of crop that a person can harvest,” Jespersen said. “So just like planting a garden without rain, not much grows.

“It’s all kind of tied together, the whole industry is kind of integrated. It goes from top to bottom. Without the rain, there’s less crops and there’s going to be an impact in the grocery store for sure.”

The rain is expected to fizzle out by Wednesday. But when it’s all said and done, Environment and Climate Change Canada estimates the Edmonton region will have seen around 40-50 millimetres of precipitation over two days.

“When we do see many months in a row where it has been very dry like we did, essentially September right through to March was very dry across most of the province, when we do see that, obviously any storm system that’s going to come in and give rain like this over two days is pretty good,” said Alysa Pederson, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

For farmers, it’s much needed during the seeding season. Once Jespersen finishes seeding peas, he’ll switch to wheat, barley and canola.

“I think the southern part of the province is probably a little further ahead. We’re a bit later in the north but yeah, seeding is well underway and this weather and this rain couldn’t come at a better time for us.”

Jespersen assured the large amount of rain in a short period of time won’t delay or impact the process.

Unlike last year, Environment Canada says Alberta is on track to see above normal precipitation this spring.

“Last May, we only had 36 mm of rain in Edmonton for the entire month,” said Pederson. “And then if you look back at 2022, we only had 23 mms. So this rainfall in this one event is likely going to be more than what we had last year in the entire month.”

“We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season with the amount of moisture we’re getting right now,” added Jespersen.