The Winnipeg Jets’ Stanley Cup drought is (arguably) the second-most pressing dry spell in Manitoba right now, as the province suffers through the driest spring ever recorded.
Most of the province has received just one-quarter of its average rainfall to date this year, or approximately 10 centimetres since January. Fields are drying up and cracking, lawns are dying and municipalities are enforcing harsh water use bans as Manitobans hope and pray for dark clouds and heavy rain to bring some relief.
But there’s little hope that this dry spell will end any time soon, according to Dave Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada.
“Nothing seems to be on the horizon,” he told CTV Winnipeg on Wednesday. “They just can’t buy a drop of rain. It’s almost as if nature has forgotten how to precipitate in the area.”
Manitoba typically faces a drought every 10-20 years, according to Environment Canada. However, this year’s drought is worse than anything the agency has observed in Manitoba over the last 140 years.
Experts say the drought has been building over several months.
“Going into the winter, we did have those dry conditions,” Patrick Cherneski, of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, told CTV Winnipeg. “Precipitation over the winter was really abnormally low.”
The federal government’s Canadian Drought Monitor map shows areas around Winnipeg are facing severe drought conditions, while other parts of the province are experiencing moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. Southwestern Saskatchewan is also facing moderate to severe drought conditions.
Many municipalities in Manitoba have imposed water bans that prohibit residents from filling their pools and watering their lawns.
Approximately half of the 5,000 residents in Niverville, Man., are trying to outlast the drought without access to well water. Bylaw officers are also going door-to-door in the community to remind people to stick to the rules of the water ban.
Resident Cassandra Turcotte says she’s had to watch her lawn turn brown and die through the ban.
“We’re trying to think of ways to get it watered without watering it with our hose, joking about getting bottled water,” she told CTV Winnipeg on Wednesday.
The drought has been particularly damaging to the nearby golf course, Old Drovers Run, where staff are having tremendous difficulty with keeping the greens green.
“Especially for golfers coming out… they want it be nice and green,” said Brendan Baldwin, the course’s director of golf. “We have some greens that are green, but our fairways are really brown.”
It’s unclear when the drought will end, so in the meantime, Manitobans may be better-served to put their hopes in the Jets instead.
