August chill smashes records Michelle Lang The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)

Saturday, August 03, 2002

REGINA -- The thermometer dipped below zero in several Saskatchewan locations early Friday morning, shattering 79-year-old records and bringing frost to drought-stressed crops.

Environment Canada reported 15 record lows in the province, with the coldest temperature recorded in Spiritwood at -2.8 C.

Saskatoon thermometers fell to 0.4 C Thursday night, breaking a 1933 record of 1.7.

A northerly flow at all levels of the atmosphere is expected to be replaced today by milder temperatures, cloud and scattered showers, said Bob Cormier of Environment Canada.

"We went into (Thursday) evening with fairly cool temperatures. And then the skies cleared off almost everywhere and this allowed for maximum radiation cooling," Cormier said.

The unseasonably cool temperatures created some frost damage in northwestern crops but agrologists said it would be a few days before the extent of the problem becomes clear.

Any damage would be bad news for grain farmers already facing a second consecutive year of drought and the worst grasshopper outbreak in a decade.

"This is the year of plague," said Steve Shirtliffe, an agronomy professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

"Drought and heat and locusts and frost. What more are we going to get?"

Spiritwood-area farmer Don Beuker said the frost likely finished off his crop, which was already struggling with the drought conditions. This morning he could see the frost damage on his canola.

"It's not a good year," he said. "I should have gone on vacation and forgotten about planting a crop."

Although temperatures dipped to about zero or slightly below freezing in some southern areas, including Regina and Estevan, experts do not believe it was cold enough to cause serious, widespread damage to crops there. It could, however, create some problems with the quality of the crop.

Shirtliffe said a frost at this time of year can be particularly damaging because plants have no tolerance for freezing temperatures. In the spring, when frosts are more likely to occur, a frost can freeze the top off of an emerging crop and it will come back, he said.

Government officials warned this week that Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. could go into a deficit this year if there was a widespread frost in addition to the drought. Crop insurance lost $100 million in 1992 after a severe provincewide frost in mid-August.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2002