National Aeronautics and Space Administration Archives

This map shows precipitation percentiles across the Prairies during the last half of the year ending Aug. 12. Three regions have been experiencing long-term dry conditions. The driest regions are found across central parts of agricultural Manitoba, southern Alberta and far-northern Alberta. The wettest regions are found across central Alberta and, to some degree, in south-central Saskatchewan.

Prairie rainfall: Too much and too little

By Daniel Bezte August 27, 2019

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of big weather stories currently going on in our part of the world, but is that really true? Sure, the weather overall this summer has been fairly quiet, with no massive storms or heat waves, but there has been a weather story that has been slowly building and

Researchers think there’s potential potatoes could be grown on Mars.

Did you know?, News

Extraterrestrial potato production studied

Researchers from Peru’s potato centres and NASA are trying to  grow spuds in conditions that mimic Mars

By Manitoba Co-operator Staff March 20, 2017

In a move that mirrors the Matt Damon blockbuster “The Martian,” researchers are trying to prove potatoes can grow on Mars. The International Potato Center (CIP) recently launched a series of experiments to discover if potatoes can grow under Mars atmospheric conditions. CIP’s proof of concept experiment to grow potatoes in simulated Martian conditions began

Weather, Weather Vane

Global and regional temperature anomalies

Globally, 2015 was the warmest year,  at 0.9 C above the 20th-century average

By Daniel Bezte February 1, 2016

In my previous article, I finished by saying I would hopefully be able to continue our look back at 2015 by exploring some of the top weather stories from our part of the world. Between then and now, both NOAA and NASA released their 2015 global temperature data and I figured we should spend some

The receding waterline of Lake Hodges is seen in San Diego County Jan. 17, 2014, when California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency.

Comment, Crops

Considering the true cost of agricultural production systems

Externalizing the cost of production is becoming less acceptable to society

By Daryll E. Ray, Harwood D. Schaffer September 22, 2015

California is in the midst of a multi-year drought that has reduced the snowpack and rains that fill the reservoirs and irrigation canals that provide water for the cities of the state as well as agricultural production. The result is lower allocations and higher prices for all water users including agriculture. Some farmers have responded

Crops, Opinion

Editorial: The green world’s breadbasket?

By Laura Rance-Unger July 13, 2015

Jeff Rubin, the former chief economist for CIBC World Markets turned bestselling author, knows all about adaptation. His first book, Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller grabbed international attention with predictions that world oil prices would climb to more than $200 a barrel by 2012, forcing a rethink of almost

Did you know?

Blast off to better soil moisture measures

A NASA satellite to measure water in Earth’s soil has gone into orbit

By Irene Klotz February 5, 2015

An unmanned Delta 2 rocket lifted off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Jan. 31 carrying a NASA satellite to measure moisture in the top layer of the Earth’s soil, data to be used in weather forecasting and tracking of global climate change. Soil moisture is a variable that binds together all of

The SMAP satellite will use active and passive radioactive waves to measure soil moisture.

Local news

Not your average soil moisture-measuring project

A satellite that measures soil moisture expected to launch in January

By Meghan Mast January 5, 2015

If you Google “SMAP” two things will come up — a Japanese boy band from the ’90s and a NASA satellite project that will attempt to measure soil moisture on a global scale. The latter is the subject of new soil research from the University of Manitoba. The satellite, set to launch on January 29,

News, Opinion

Heat waves emphasize need for retooled climate research

By Gerard Wynn July 30, 2012

A major heat wave and drought has sent world grain prices skyrocketing for a second of three summers suggesting it is time to address supply through repurposed climate research. Tackling high food prices among the leading G20 nations has so far bent on fixing demand issues, including grain trading, export bans and the role of

Crops, News

Manitoba soils help NASA’s new gadgets take flight

By Daniel Winters June 16, 2012

From June 7 to July 17, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will fly two piloted aircraft several times a week over an area of mixed agricultural and forested land from Portage la Prairie to Carman in south-central Manitoba. These aircraft will carry instruments similar to those onboard a satellite that NASA will

News, Weather

2011: Record warmth in the Arctic

By Daniel Bezte March 14, 2012

As we slowly make our way into 2012 I thought we should take a little bit of time to look back at how 2011 turned out globally. I’ve already mentioned that in the last half of 2011 our region of the world saw record-warm temperatures along with very dry conditions. Globally, 2011 came in tied

Daily Network News

Women who fed a nation

U.S. grains: Soybeans rise on China demand hopes; corn and wheat rebound

U.S. livestock: Hogs rebound, cattle hit upward limits

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