Drought watch

The Drought Watch website was developed by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2001 to provide timely information on the impacts of climatic variability on water supply and agriculture in the Prairies and to promote practices that reduce drought vulnerability.

In addition, viewers can also obtain general climate information for the agricultural region of all of Canada. Contents of the site include maps, climate profiles, drought management information, information on federal drought response programs, and related information and links.

Precipitation maps for the whole country are updated daily during the week. Temperature maps are created monthly. Data for these products are purchased by a group of sponsors of the Timely Climate Monitoring Network (TCMN)

The maps show:

• yearly/seasonal national and precipitation;
• weekly precipitation during the growing season;
• monthly temperature;
• grasshopper forecasts and related information;
• potential forage production; and
• on-farm surface water supplies.

Maps are archived dating back to 2001.

Related and Provincial links connect drought watch clients to crop reports, market reports, current/ seasonal weather/climate forecasts, snow and water supply reports and other sites of interest. Most recently, the Crop Conditions Assessment Program (CCAP), a derived remote-sensing product that illustrates plant vegetative vigour, has been added to the site via a link with Statistics Canada through the Drought Watch website.