Heavy snow could be just short of what farmers need

Heavy snow is being dropped on the Southeast in what has been described by some as a storm of the decade.

The blizzard bringing that in is expected to last until tonight, and afterward will be followed up by a bit more snow.

Overall environment Canada is predicting somewhere in the 30-40 centimeter range for snow coverage with a smaller system heading in on the weekend.

While that system seems to be a dream for farmers who have been looking for moisture, Agrologist Edgar Hammermeister says how it falls could determine what farmers actually get from it.

"There's going to be a couple of considerations that we're receiving. The first is how much wind is going to be moving that snow around, and hopefully, we don't have too strong of a wind. If we can receive the snow, but it blows into the bluff in both spots - it's moisture for sure for the cattlemen, but we need that moisture to stay in place."

"The other consideration is how much moisture is in that snow, and this is a little bit of a colder snowstorm that we're having, so I'm wondering about just how much moisture is in this snow. The snowflakes seem to be a little bit smaller, which suggests to me that it's dryer snow, there's more air in it."

Hammermeister says that from what he's seen he thinks this storm won't quite be enough to get past last year's drought.

"Certainly we're going to get moisture, but I don't think it's going to be the big recharge everybody's hoping for, I'm sorry to say. I very much hope I'm wrong, and any bit of moisture is going to help absolutely, but I don't think we're having the big recharge event because the snow seems to have less moisture in it."

He hopes that some of the warmth from the weeks past was kept in the soil and if that encourages a melt this season could have a great start.

"What I am hoping is that the snow is able to settle and gets caught in the stubble. My perception is there was enough heat stored in the soil already, with the bright sunshine we had, that the soil would start to melt from underneath, which would be fantastic," said Hammermeister, "The moisture will sink straight into the soil, and then there won't be much runoff related to that."

We'll have to wait for later in the growing season to see if the last year's drought gets beaten by this year's moisture.

"If there are 40 centimeters of snow, if we get that type of accumulation," said Hammermeister, "That could be almost an inch of moisture and on top of what we already had that would probably give us about two feet of moist soil in a lot of areas. That's a great start, but it won't be a drought-busting weather system, that's really got to happen in June and July, but this will help us get off to a really good start."