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By Curtis Galbraith

The Weather Network predicts summer will be warmer and drier

May 29, 2018 | 5:31 AM

The Weather Network says summer should be warmer and drier than normal in the Peace this year.

Meteorologist Michael Carter says the temperature patterns we have seen during May should be what we see in the coming months.

“Not really any big change coming to the overall weather patterns, the jet stream position, so what we’re really thinking is that hot conditions are going to dominate most of the summer, not unlike what we’ve seen for a few summers now, where we’re going to see hot and dry conditions setting up across a lot of Alberta, a lot of BC.”

He adds they will be watching to see if the drought already affecting other parts of the Prairies comes here.

“The real question for us in Grande Prairie is going to be how far north and how far west does that spread through the summer season? Right now, our thinking is that you guys will avoid the worst of it up in northwestern Alberta, that it’ll be more of a southern problem in terms of developing drought this summer. Certainly, we could be a bit on the dry side, as compared to normal.”

Carter says while it might be a good summer for camping, it may not be so good for farming or wildfires.

“For folks that are looking at this forecast and thinking ‘When am I going to get out to the river, when am I going to get out to the lake?’, it’s going to be a pretty decent summer for that, I think. You’re going to have your share of hot weather, but no real problems in terms of those outdoor activities. For our producers, for our folks in agriculture and for our folks that are concerned about wildfires, it may be a little bit more of a pessimistic story.”

Carter says these predictions are based on a number of things, including forecast models, the weather around the world, and historical data.

by Curtis Galbraith