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SEPTEMBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC AAFC seeks volunteer weather reporters


Data will help identify emerging trends and related risks to ag by MARGARET EVANS


CHILLIWACK—If there’s one thing farmers talk about more than seed varieties and yield, it’s the weather. Historically, there was a certain predictability of seasonal weather changes but now, weather has become the wild card – the joker in the atmospheric pack of jet streams, rainfall patterns, snow and hail, extremes of heat and drought, and destructive wildfires. To get a handle on


localized weather trends and how much extreme weather events are impacting producers, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is seeking agroclimate impact reporters. The program invites farmers to complete an online monthly survey about local weather conditions. The goal is to evaluate emerging trends, and create a profile of climate related risks to Canadian agriculture. Currently, some 300


producers across the three prairie provinces as well as the Peace River region of BC are volunteering information. The goal is to increase the network across Canada. The survey is open during the last week of each month during the growing season (April to October). Survey results are made into maps and published on the Drought Watch website the first week of every month.


BC has been home to a number of weather anomoies this year. In May, six high temperatures were broken in the Fraser Valley, rainfall was 57.78% below average and farmers were taking their first baled hay crops off the field. And it came on the heels of the coldest February in Chilliwack in 123 years, when an Arctic front hit the southern half of the province. “February was a bad month


and it killed buds,” says Penny Gambell with Gambell Farms in Lake Country. “The plums and apricots took a big hit this year. Rains came this year when the later varieties of cherries were just getting ready and they suffered a lot. Our yields are lower, about 60% of the crop.” She says they are seeing are


more frequent extremes of weather and greater variability of weather patterns. While the growing season appears to be starting a little earlier, she notes that seven years ago, they had the latest season she could ever remember. “One thing we are seeing is


extremes of hot and cold. This year, it fluctuated. February


was a bad month. Then it was very warm in May. Then the wet season came. We normally pick apricots July 1. Not this year. We did not pick until the end of July.” Historical data in BC from indicates that the average annual temperature warmed by 1.4°C across the province. Night-time minimum average temperatures have increased by 3.1°C. Lakes and rivers are becoming ice-free earlier and water in the Fraser River is warmer in summer, putting returning salmon at risk. Rainfall is expected to increase but summers will be hotter and dryer leading to more threats of drought and wildfires. To sign up for the survey, go to [https://bit.ly/2ZcAejr].


FILE PHOTO


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