Moose Jaw experienced driest conditions ever recorded in area in 2020

Some regions of Saskatchewan had an exceedingly dry 2020.

Moose Jaw saw the driest conditions ever recorded in the region since Environment Canada started recording precipitation levels for the area in 1916.

Estevan had its second-driest year on record, Regina its fourth, Swift Current its fifth and Yorkton its fifth.

Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang said this was the second time in less than five years that there was a record low for precipitation in the area.

“It’s the driest year recorded with 104 years on record,” Lang said. “The second-driest year was in 2017. Southern Saskatchewan overall was very, very dry last year.”

The 30-year average of precipitation for Moose Jaw, according to Lang, is 365.2 millimetres annually. In 2020, the city received only 179.6 millimetres of precipitation.

The previous low for the area was 214.8 millimetres in 2017. The next-driest year after that was 1988, at 217.1 millimetres.

In 2020, Moose Jaw received roughly 49 per cent of precipitation that the area would typically get.

“It does have impacts on agriculture, but we will have to see what the rest of winter brings with respect to precipitation,” Lang said. “If this keeps happening year after year, then you have to be more concerned about that, but one year doesn’t make a pattern.”

Lang added places like Swift Current would have been a lot more dry if it wasn’t for snowstorms the city experienced in November.

“That snowstorm probably brought their stats up,” she said.

While southern Saskatchewan was dry, the northern part of the province saw above-average moisture last year.

“As dry as it was in the south, it was wet in the north,” Lang said. “It was sort of a feast and famine. When it came to Saskatchewan there were some very different weather patterns.

“For the most part, it was much wetter than average all across the north.”