By Glenn Hicks

No end to dry spring in sight: Environment Canada

May 8, 2018 | 12:00 PM

It’s possible we’ll see some rain this week, but there are no significant downpours on the horizon.

The dry forecast is not good news, as the wildfire danger persists and crews in Prince Albert and around the province do their best to keep grass fires in check.

“This time of year precipitation usually starts to pick up, but it has been very dry,” Environment Canada Spokesperson Jean Paul Cragg told paNOW. “ In April, Prince Albert gets an average 27.4 millimetres of rain and then that almost doubles to 44.7 millimetres in May, but we’ve seen only 8 millimetres total since the big snow dump in March.”

Cragg said the province has seen an extraordinary turnaround in the usual weather patterns coming out of winter. Earlier modelling predictions calling for a wet start to spring largely turned out to be wrong, he added.

“The predictions were true at the beginning of the spring with the heavy snow in March, but it has really switched up,” Cragg said. “Given these forecasts seem to be trending towards being wrong, it’s now really hard to hang your hat on any model suggesting whether there will be more or less precipitation than average for the spring.”

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While things could change quickly within the next week, Cragg said there is currently no way of forecasting when we’ll get a lasting break from the dry conditions.

The Prince Albert Fire Department responded to four separate fires in a period of about 30 minutes Monday afternoon. Fires were reported at the Cooke Municipal Golf Course, on the PAGC lands, and two other locations on residential streets.

The province’s Emergency Management officials are encouraging municipalities to issue fire bans, and many bans have been imposed across our region.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow