The boreal forest is rather dry at this point in time. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

weather system

Mix of rain and snow for La Ronge this week

Apr 15, 2024 | 2:51 PM

A weather system moving into Saskatchewan this week will bring with it much needed moisture to the La Ronge area.

“We got a really active system coming in from north central Alberta at this point in time spreading and tracking southeastward across the northern portion of parkland and southern part of the boreal forest in Saskatchewan over the next three days,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor.

“We are going to increase the chance of shower activity in the La Ronge area this evening and then sort of through the overnight period change into an organized area of light rain or wet snow.”

There’s a 30 per cent chance of showers on Monday, which will be followed periods of snow and rain until Thursday. The temperature will also drop and hover around the freezing point throughout the week.

Warmer weather and sunny skies will return on Friday and are expected to last throughout the weekend.

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“We need these kind of late winter, early spring events to help us from a moisture point of view,” Proctor noted.

“The boreal is pretty dry at this point. It has been dry for much of the winter and we really do need that moisture to help us moving into the fire season, so it is beneficial to get that moisture and really April, at this point of time, overall we are seeing that weakening El Niño if you want to put it that way. It is still looking, in general terms, fairly dry and transitioning into a bit more of a normal summer as we move forward.”

The last three months have been the driest on record for winter statistics in La Ronge. That’s according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada, which considers winter months to be December, January and February.

Data shows precipitation during those three months to amount to 18 millimeters, whereas 56.8 mm is the normal amount from a total of 59 years of record keeping.

March in La Ronge was also rather dry with it being the 18 driest on record. There was 12.9 mm of precipitation with the normal amount being 21.2 mm. Further north, Key Lake recorded its third driest on record.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com