An alfalfa crop is harvested near Stonewall, Man.

First Manitoba hay harvest short

Manitoba’s first hay cut of 2025 isn’t great by initial counts, but things are worse farther west in the Prairies

Manitoba’s first hay cut of 2025 isn’t huge by initial counts, but things are worse farther west in the Prairies

Photo: File

Prairie forecast: Unsettled weather ahead

Forecast issued June 18, covering June 18 to 25, 2025

For this forecast period we start, once again, with no strong systems impacting the Prairies. But, as we head into the weekend a strong area of low pressure is forecasted to develop over the western U.S. This low will impact our region over the weekend, but how and where is a little uncertain.


Photo: Lisa Guenther

Prairie forecast: Where did the summer heat go?

Forecast issued June 11, covering June 11 to 18, 2025

Looking at the big picture we start this forecast period with a generally zonal flow across the Prairies as Arctic high pressure slides across the far northern Prairies and weak low pressure moves by to the south. This will bring sunny to partly cloudy skies and near to slightly below-average temperatures.




Photo: Allan Dawson/File

Prairie forecast: Hot east, cool west

Forecast issued May 7, covering May 7 to 14, 2025

We saw a strong ridge of high pressure build in last week, which brought daytime highs into the low thirties across parts of the eastern Prairies. Once the ridge collapsed, cooler air moved back in. Well, it looks like we can expect another cycle of building and collapsing ridges. Then, starting on the weekend, the weather pattern should become more energetic thanks to a strong trough of low pressure forecasted to develop off the West Coast.


This visible satellite image, taken on April 24 around 3pm covers most of southern and central Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It clearly shows the area of snow that fell earlier in the week across southeastern Saskatchewan. It also demonstrates how the cold air over top of the snowy region and the ice covered lakes inhibits cloud formation.

Neither rain, snow, sleet or hail…

It can be tough to tell the various precipitation types from each other

Farmers on the Prairies can expect to see all types of precipitation in the spring and early summer, including snow, rain, sleet and hail.

LRPhotographies/iStock/Getty Images

Prairie forecast: Here comes the summery weather

Forecast issued April 30, covering April 30 to May 7, 2025

Well, one week is up and as I pointed out in last week's forecast, the weather pattern still looks like it is going to flip from a cool-ish spring regime right into a summer-like pattern. This flip should happen over the next few days.


File Photo: Willowpix/iStock/Getty Images

Prairie forecast: Warm weather gaining ground

Forecast issued April 23, covering April 23 to 30, 2025

We start this forecast period with an area of low pressure exiting the eastern Prairie and taking the rain and wet snow with it. To the west, a weak frontal system looks ready to drop into northern Alberta where it should bring scattered showers.

Photo: Kat72/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Prairie forecast: Temperature rollercoaster to continue

Forecast issued April 16, covering April 16 to 23, 2025

Spring is the toughest time to forecast, but this spring is being particularly tough. The atmosphere is in a very meridional flow right now. That means there are lots of troughs and ridges. So, instead of a persistent westerly flow across our region we are seeing warm southerly flows as ridges build, followed by cool northerly flows as the ridges collapse and are replaced by troughs of low pressure.