Rate the climate: Regina, Saskatchewan (snowfall, places, seasons, America)

[Infamous92]

F, atrocious.

[sulkiercupid]

D-...annual average temperature is too low and much too dry.

[SnowboundwithCabinFever]

I do have to disagree with whomever said we get frost every month of the year. We own a farm in the Moose Jaw/Regina area and we certainly wouldn't plant crops every year (or even own it) if we had them freeze every summer. We have had snow fall in almost every month (I do remember that happening one year) but we didn't have freezing temps when it fell (we were cool however). Most times crops are safe from May 20 to mid September and some years right to the end of October (arctic_gardeners area and North can and does have frost earlier than the Regina area however). Our farm grows crops that are usually ripe prior to frost or can take some frost, come fall, without damage. High moisture levels ie rain/dew point we don't want as it causes problems with our crops and livestock.

Yes the area grows wheat (hard red spring wheat, winter wheat, durum, Khorasan/Triticum) very well but it also grows mediterranean crops as well. Some of the other crops grown here: chickpeas, canola, red and green lentils, flax, mustard, barley, canary seed, oats, field peas, rye, sunflowers, corn, potatoes, camelina, faba bean, hemp and beans. Fruit is also being commercially produced ie saskatoons, sour cherries, chokecherries, etc. Herbs: Echinacea, feverfew, chamomile, milk thistle, St. John's Wort, coriander, caraway, fenugreek, and skullcap. This province also has two vineyards (not in the Regina area though). At a local community garden some folks from Asia grew some of their homelands native crops (short season albeit) which did very well.

We also produce more honey than any other province in Canada.

As a lover of semi tropical plants commonly grown in Florida or Hawaii I do watch overnight projected temps and am ready to haul inside if there is a hint that Jack may come for a visit. We also have lots of flannel sheets for covering tomato plants.

[SnowboundwithCabinFever]

Oh and on a positive note one can't call our climate boring. We get tornadoes, amazing shelf/wall clouds, baking hot summers with lovely naturally occuring A/C cooled nights, steamy hot summers with gross hot nights, gorgeous mid 70's summers, monsoon rains, normal rains, rains that go everywhere but where you'd like them, inland formed hurricanes/weather bombs, crisp falls, cold mind numbing winters, blizzards, snowfalls that will bury ones house/farm/barn, winters that one can wear sandals to almost the end of December, warm winters, springs that take one's breath away (one day its 30 below and the next the melt is running and it is gloriously warm and then one sees a crocus bloom).

[SnowboundwithCabinFever]

From one extreme to the other:

Saskatchewan Weather Report

A day so hot
the goldfish bubbled
in the bowl and offered
up fish and chips.

A night so cold
the curve of the moon
froze to the tip
of the wind's tongue.

A wind so high
the trees tore out
their roots and offered
them up to the sky.

Dust so black
you could die of thirst
just opening
a window.

A sky so clear
the sun shone till Sunday
and back again
before closing its eyes.

A day so fine
the afternoon dug in
its heels, refused
to follow the morning.

A love so rare
even June
blushed
at the thought.

From
The Horse Knows the Way. Poems by Dave Margoshes


The virtue of snow.

Freezing rain turning to sleet,
winds gusting to 40 km/h,
temperatures dropping to -20,
windchill 1900.
--weather forecast

Head down through needle snow,
all the resolve you had
to push on the certain distance
begins to waver -- how can anything
melt in this cold, you wonder,
and so fast. The wind picks its way
through you like soldiers skating
across minefields, careful but predatory,
and that sighing in the trees is the breath
of frozen beasts, their hearts rekindled
by your pain. A handful of fire
would be heaven, not hell, a bathtubfull
pure bliss compared to the mortal heat
the hollow night is breathing down
your neck, giving your ear an unwanted kiss
and in the ditch, the comfort of snow
up to your knees, the virtue of sleep
calls your name in a voice you
can't possibly recognize, whispers
lies and truth and lies again until
you can't distinguish. The Prairie
is no more than a thought, an illusion
of sky and horizon blurred by a lack
of definition stretching as far
as any grid road will take you
this night, or any other. The virtue
of vice is a paradox even weather
can't blur, blow those winds of January
though they do, blowing their icy hearts
out, mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Horse on the prairie
Regina-based writer Dave Margoshes, a journalist for more than 30 years, currently contributes to The Vancouver Sun.

[SnowboundwithCabinFever]

Saskatchewan Storms (Slide Show) - YouTube

[SnowboundwithCabinFever]

Temperatures that range from -50C (-60's with windchill) to +45C (+50's temp + dewpoint).

From the cruel and harsh arctic to gross jungle like humidity
Saskatchewan has had it all.

[arctic_gardener]

Originally Posted by SnowboundwithCabinFever

I do have to disagree with whomever said we get frost every month of the year.

While you are correct that it is extremely rare for frost to occur in every month of the *same* year, it has occurred, at some point in the last 50 years or so, in every month of the year (2004 and 2009 in the last decade being the most rotten summers we've had). Also, a lot of the crops are only sensitive to frost during grain fill, and not so much during early vegetative growth or after grain maturation.

For myself, a 1 in 50 year occurrence is still far too much. But what the hell, I still live here

As an aside, Regina, Edmonton and Winnipeg airports are all located in frost pockets, and this may influence temperature records to some degree.

[Crunch41]

B-, would like more rain and snow in winter and warmer winters, but the weather is definitely interesting.

[alex985]

A-, near perfect climate, more snow in the winter and little colder in April/May would be nice summers are a little too warm as well, though has nice nights.