This has been the mildest summer in my 5 years living in the area, I'm loving it
Tornado watches are becoming more frequent tho
Same here in montreal, my grass has never been this green in the middle of july. Kinda weird that we had all those forest fires when the summer's been pretty damn mild for now
Over here in the west it's never been so dry. Pastures are brown, hay and crops aren't just stunted but are dying before maturity. Trees are yellowing and dropping leaves. Plague of grasshoppers eating everything that was still green. Every day is hot and the air is full of smoke, it feels like the end of the world over here.
That isn't "just" climate change though, it's also urbanisation and the way you guys over there use ground water. It's a combination of a lot of things, climate change is only one puzzle piece in the whole scheme of things.
Also, the drought thing is easily combatable with desalination, which has a few other benefits. The main caveat is, it's expensive. But, it's a lot cheaper than having to deal with various other things due to the droughts.
Guessing you've never been to Western Canada. We only have a couple major cities, and we don't use that much groundwater both as it tends to be saline and because we have plenty of surface water to use due to snowmelt runoff. Also we don't have anything to desalinate, unless we're talking about that low-quality groundwater, which is a very expensive proposition as you say to get any significant volume.
We're not concerned about water for drinking, city usage etc. Most cities are on major rivers that are running near normally. Hydro dams have tons of storage to run until next winter's snow. On my farm I have dugouts that capture runoff, they are full. I have shallow wells on GUDI aquifers where the water is near the top of the casing! I'm irrigating my garden and my orchard like mad out of my yard dugout and that usage isn't even noticeable compared to evaporation losses.
We're concerned that our crops are dying, our livestock are starving (sold mine already) and almost none of our land is irrigated. In BC the trees are dying and burning for lack of rain and there is no way to irrigate them of course. This part of the country has long relied on a steady cycle of June and July thunderstorms for moisture - but the thunderstorms have dried up.
It just won't rain, that's all.
No, I have never been to Western Canada (it's very high on my bucket list, though) and I was broadly talking about North America. Sorry for the generalization.
This year being also an El Nino year may have contributed...while some people will say otherwise, Europe has been uncharacteristically moist. We got a lot of places that already have reached 90% of their yearly average precipitation...
Same in Vancouver, though the deep heat usually comes in August. It is however extremely dry. I can't remember the last time it actually rained. Looks like 2-4 rain events since May 1.
Newly-minted Albertan here, extreme thunderstorms are a weekly occurrance. Haven't lived here long enough to know if that's normal, but in Grand Forks, BC a thunderstorm was a rarity.
Welcome to Alberta, thunderstorms are the dominant weather in the summer. Make sure your shingles are tacked down around the edges of the roof, even if it isn't "proper" because updrafts will tear them off. If your neighbourhood codes allow it, switch to metal roofing when the hail trashes the shingles you have now and save the hassle of replacing shingles non stop.
I moved from AB to SK 8 years ago and we had a similar storm cycle then, but it's been dead for almost 5 years now. Just hot dry sun. Thunderstorms are the main source of summer rain as we haven't seen a real multi-day "soaker" in many years now, so we're in big trouble.
This has been the mildest summer in my 5 years living in the area, I'm loving it
Tornado watches are becoming more frequent tho
Same here in montreal, my grass has never been this green in the middle of july. Kinda weird that we had all those forest fires when the summer's been pretty damn mild for now
Mild in Montreal, maybe, but check out the Canadian Drought Monitor as the rest of Canada is in drought. Like, the entire rest of Canada. https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/agricultural-production/weather/canadian-drought-monitor/current-drought-conditions
Over here in the west it's never been so dry. Pastures are brown, hay and crops aren't just stunted but are dying before maturity. Trees are yellowing and dropping leaves. Plague of grasshoppers eating everything that was still green. Every day is hot and the air is full of smoke, it feels like the end of the world over here.
That isn't "just" climate change though, it's also urbanisation and the way you guys over there use ground water. It's a combination of a lot of things, climate change is only one puzzle piece in the whole scheme of things.
Also, the drought thing is easily combatable with desalination, which has a few other benefits. The main caveat is, it's expensive. But, it's a lot cheaper than having to deal with various other things due to the droughts.
Guessing you've never been to Western Canada. We only have a couple major cities, and we don't use that much groundwater both as it tends to be saline and because we have plenty of surface water to use due to snowmelt runoff. Also we don't have anything to desalinate, unless we're talking about that low-quality groundwater, which is a very expensive proposition as you say to get any significant volume.
We're not concerned about water for drinking, city usage etc. Most cities are on major rivers that are running near normally. Hydro dams have tons of storage to run until next winter's snow. On my farm I have dugouts that capture runoff, they are full. I have shallow wells on GUDI aquifers where the water is near the top of the casing! I'm irrigating my garden and my orchard like mad out of my yard dugout and that usage isn't even noticeable compared to evaporation losses.
We're concerned that our crops are dying, our livestock are starving (sold mine already) and almost none of our land is irrigated. In BC the trees are dying and burning for lack of rain and there is no way to irrigate them of course. This part of the country has long relied on a steady cycle of June and July thunderstorms for moisture - but the thunderstorms have dried up.
It just won't rain, that's all.
No, I have never been to Western Canada (it's very high on my bucket list, though) and I was broadly talking about North America. Sorry for the generalization. This year being also an El Nino year may have contributed...while some people will say otherwise, Europe has been uncharacteristically moist. We got a lot of places that already have reached 90% of their yearly average precipitation...
Same in Vancouver, though the deep heat usually comes in August. It is however extremely dry. I can't remember the last time it actually rained. Looks like 2-4 rain events since May 1.
You can look up your area here:
Newly-minted Albertan here, extreme thunderstorms are a weekly occurrance. Haven't lived here long enough to know if that's normal, but in Grand Forks, BC a thunderstorm was a rarity.
Welcome to Alberta, thunderstorms are the dominant weather in the summer. Make sure your shingles are tacked down around the edges of the roof, even if it isn't "proper" because updrafts will tear them off. If your neighbourhood codes allow it, switch to metal roofing when the hail trashes the shingles you have now and save the hassle of replacing shingles non stop.
I moved from AB to SK 8 years ago and we had a similar storm cycle then, but it's been dead for almost 5 years now. Just hot dry sun. Thunderstorms are the main source of summer rain as we haven't seen a real multi-day "soaker" in many years now, so we're in big trouble.