The location and strength of a high pressure ridge this summer will determine which areas of Saskatchewan will receive higher than normal rainfall in July and August.

Drew Lerner is an agricultural meteorologist with World Weather Inc. based in Kansas City, Missouri.

He was on a webinar yesterday sponsored by the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission.

For the summer, Lerner will be watching the Negative Pacific Decodal Oscillation—which he refers to as PDO.

He says the high pressure ridge will determine if west coast moisture reaches the prairies, and how far inland it will come.

For this spring, he says western areas of the province may receive lower than usual levels of precipitation forecast for the driest part of the prairies.

The southeast corner of the province is also looking at below normal spring precipitation, with all other regions in the near normal zone.

Moving ahead to summer—Lerner says a high-pressure ridge will bring above normal rainfall to one band across the province—but he can’t pinpoint the main location.

Lerners comments were made Tuesday during a webinar sponsored by the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission.
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(with files from cjww)