Is the southwest experiencing drought again?

Parts of southwestern Saskatchewan have returned to drought conditions after a dry summer.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada drought map published on August 31, much of the region ranges is listed in moderate or severe drought. With a few spots close to the Montana and Alberta borders in the abnormally dry category.

The severe drought spot runs from Swift Current north to the Rosetown area and west to Kindersley. 

Trevor Hadwen, an agriclimate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said much of the province's moisture levels are adequate.

"The southwest is the one region where we saw drier conditions in August and normal than warmer temperatures causing some increase in drought conditions," he said. "Late in the year, we're typically a dry region in the southwest, so that shouldn't be that big of a surprise."

Swift Current collected only 15.3 millimetres of precipitation last month, well below the 139-year monthly average of 41.5 millimetres. It was also 1.3 C warmer than August's average.

The three meteorological summer months in the region undid the near return to normal conditions according to the drought mapping after a strong spring for precipitation. 

Swift Current logged its ninth driest summer with 83.3 millimetres, only half its average precipitation of 166.9 millimetres. Coupled with the dry conditions, the trio of months was also a combined 0.7 C warmer than normal at 18.1 C.

"Those spring rains really helped improve things throughout the province but more specifically in the western portion," he said. "We've lost a lot of moisture through the heat this summer and evapotranspiration... We started out the year much worse than we are currently in terms of moisture levels."

The region has battled extremely dry conditions consistently since 2017.

"There are lingering impacts from previous years of drought that are still occurring," he said. "Pastures have not fully recovered throughout many parts of the province... and the feed supplies have not fully recovered from previous years."

Hadwen said both pasture and feed supplies did improve overall this year but generally took a slight step backward in August.