
Weather

U.S. grains: Soybeans tumble on downpours in drought-stricken Brazil
Wheat rises after Russian attack on Ukraine port; CBOT corn eases
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures lost more than one per cent on Wednesday as rain fell in Brazil, easing worries over the persistent dryness and heat that has plagued crops in the top exporting nation, analysts said. Wheat rose on shipping concerns in the Black Sea after Russia’s strike on port infrastructure, while […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Winter temperatures try to move in
Issued Nov. 22, covering Nov. 22-29
There is a large, deep area of low pressure spinning over the northern half of Hudson Bay along with a building area of high pressure over the Yukon. The counterclockwise rotation around the Hudson Bay low will create a north to northwesterly flow across the Prairies. This will allow the Yukon high to drop southward. […] Read more

Prairie forecast: One more shot of warm weather?
Issued Nov. 14, covering Nov. 15 to 18
It looks like the well above average temperatures that flooded across the prairies over the last week or so will be coming to an end, at least eventually. The good news is that it doesn't look like it will be an abrupt end with well below average temperatures moving in.

El Nino to continue through Northern Hemisphere spring, U.S. forecaster says
Reuters — El Nino weather conditions will continue through the Northern Hemisphere during April-June 2024 with a 62 per cent chance, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday. “Above-average sea surface temperatures (SST) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean were indicative of a strong El Nino, with anomalies increasing in the central and east-central Pacific […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: False start to winter as mild air returns
Issued Nov. 7, covering Nov. 8 to 15
It looks more and more as though our late-October cold snap and snowy conditions were indeed a false start to winter. In the last forecast I mentioned the really cold air looks to be bottled up well to our north, and it was and will be for the next week or two. You can get […] Read more

Brazil’s second corn crop facing delays
Acres either too dry or too wet for planting
MarketsFarm — There remained little doubt that Brazil’s corn safrinha (second) crop will be smaller than initially anticipated, according to Dr. Michael Cordonnier of Soybean and Corn Advisor Inc. He chalked up most of that due to conditions being too dry and too wet for the planting of Brazil’s soybean crop, depending on the region. […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Nice, quiet early-winter weather
Issued Nov. 1, covering Nov. 1 to 8
Interesting weather pattern setting up across the Prairies during this forecast period. Well, maybe “interesting” isn’t the right word; “boring” might be a better one. What I mean by “interesting” is just how quickly we swung from a warm fall pattern to a cool winter pattern. Low temperatures across the Prairies over the last week […] Read more

Long-range outlook points to warmer winter
Odds less likely for Prairies next three months
MarketsFarm — Warmer than normal temperatures are expected across nearly all of Canada this winter, with average precipitation for most of the agricultural areas of the Prairies. The latest long-range seasonal forecast from Environment Canada, released Tuesday, calls for a 40 per cent chance of above-normal temperatures from November through January across most of Alberta, […] Read more

Prairie Forecast Update: Warmer air not in the cards
Issued Oct. 29, covering Oct. 29 to Nov. 1
The forecast for this period has been playing out pretty close to what the weather models were predicting, but with a few small differences. For Alberta, the forecasted upper ridge does not look like it will get nearly as strong as originally forecasted as a strong northwesterly flow helps to flatten the ridge. This means […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Arctic high slowly moving out
Issued Oct. 25, covering Oct. 25 to Nov. 1
As is often the case at this time of the year, the weather models got the general picture right, but the finer details were much to be desired. Usually, the models struggle with the forecast beyond two to five days out, but for much of this forecast period they struggled with the finer details on […] Read more