Rainfall totals varied in the region, depending on where you were in July. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

July Rainfall Totals

July rainfall: Melfort below average, Nipawin well above average

Aug 2, 2019 | 1:45 PM

If you think there was a high amount of rain in the northeast region in July, you may be right, depending on where you were.

In Melfort, you’d be wrong as they only saw 72.7mm of precipitation over the 31 days. That’s slightly below the average of 76.7mm, but slightly more than the 69.5mm last year. Melfort did have a couple days over 10mm, but none more than 16. Something that Environment Canada’s Natalie Hasell said could be a reason for the feeling of more rain.

“No days with greater amounts of precipitation,” she said. “So it’s not like you had one massive dump at one point. Things are pretty spread out every few days.”

Normally, Melfort gets around 14 days of rain, which is almost every other day. This year in July, the Melfort area did have a stretch of four days with no rain, something that Hasell said is very tough to do. She added that another reason for the feeling of more rain could be a bit of recency bias.

“The fall was dry, the winter was dry, the spring was dry,” Hasell told northeastNOW. “So suddenly to have a month with any precipitation, may feel like it’s a lot of precipitation.”

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However, one thing that Hasell said has been a little bit more frequent is the thunderstorms and severe thunderstorms as well. Something that she said is really mostly a coincidence.

“The fact that you’ve had severe thunderstorms is kind of just a coincidence,” Hasell said. “Things have to line up properly for there to be a lot of severe weather. If it just happens every other day, then that’s what you get.”

Things like low level moisture, an unstable atmosphere, vertical motion and more all play a part in getting the thunderstorms rolling.

Meanwhile, just an hour or so north of Melfort, there was plenty of rain. Nipawin got 121.1mm of precipitation in July, well over their average of 82.7mm. A great portion of that rainfall did come on the eighth of the month as 47.9mm fell on that day as a massive storm ripped through the area.

Hasell said that the reasoning for the large variations could be the fact that thunderstorms come in small pockets, which leads to them only hitting certain areas.

Looking forward into August, Hasell said it still remains thunderstorm season and people should remain vigilant. She suggested for people to have two emergency kits, one in their home and another in their car.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6