Craig Lester May 18, 2025

Alberta (Rural Roots Canada) – An updated Canadian drought monitor from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has been issued, and for most of Alberta, conditions have eased.

West Central Alberta, from Olds to Nordegg, is no longer in drought thanks to recent rain. Southeastern Alberta received between 85 and 200 per cent of normal precipitation in April.

RELATED: Prairie Weather This Week – Midweek Update May 15

The news was not as good for southwestern Alberta, where conditions worsened, and part of the region is now considered to be an extreme drought.

The southern foothills region has snowpack below average, the soil is dry, and surface water levels are low.

According to the drought monitor, the St. Mary Reservoir is only at 64 per cent capacity, the Old Man is at 57 per cent, and Waterton is just 40 per cent. After a dry April, parts of the Lakeland region are considered abnormally dry, but not yet in drought.

Now, conditions could improve between now and the end of the month with up to 90 millimetres of rain, projected by some computer models to fall between now and the end of the month in the southwestern foothills, the area hardest hit by drought.

In Saskatchewan, there are moderate drought conditions north of Saskatoon, mainly in forested land.   Agricultural regions are drought-free, though a narrow strip of east-west land along the US border is considered abnormally dry.

In Manitoba, virtually all agricultural land is considered abnormally dry in the latest Drought Monitor.   However, the area was assessed prior to the heavy rains that fell in the middle of May.

According to the drought monitory, at the end of April, 41 percent of agricultural land across the three prairie provinces was either abnormally dry, or in moderate to extreme drought.

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Craig Lester

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