Dry, cracked crops at Rocking K Ranch in Oxdrift. Submitted.
It was a long and dry summer for farmers in parts of Canada, including here at home in northwestern Ontario.
The drought that caused one of the driest summers in 75 to even 150 years is being named one of the top weather stories of 2021.
Environment Canada’s Senior Climatologist David Phillips says it was widespread, intensely dry and long-lasting.
“We saw across the west from British Colombia to Northwestern Ontario, it was one of the driest summers. Not a drop of rain for some places.”
Phillips adds any rain there was came at the start and end of the growing season.
“What we saw during the peak of the growing season, May, late May, June and into mid July, we saw six per cent of the annual precipitation. That was it. We had three quarters of the perception fall in three days, that’s not going to help you out.”
A week before harvest, Phillips says 99 per cent of the Prairies were already in drought-conditions.
The impacts on the agricultural industry are also still being felt today.
“It cost the economy billions of dollars and the price of food has gone up because of the drought,” explains Phillips. “Farmers, in some cases, lost everything. They lost their livelihood and in some cases, because of the suffering and the stress, they even lost their lives.”
In some parts, it was one of the driest summers in 75 to even 150 years.
Northwestern Ontario farmers did find relief in a provincial assistance program to avoid sending animals out of the area.
The province gave 800 thousand dollars for the Kenora and Rainy River Districts in the form of feed and 1.2 million for water resources and temporary fencing to add onto pastures.
Read more about a local beef producer in Oxdrift reflecting on the drought.
(With Files From Sarah McCarthy)
