Drought deepens in Eastern Canada as West sees some improvement: monitor

A head of wheat is silhouetted by the sun in a wheat crop near Cremona, Alta., on September 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Officials say a deepening drought in Central and Atlantic Canada is creating water supply issues and underlining concerns about crop conditions and wildfires.

The latest national outlook shows large pockets of extreme drought have appeared across Atlantic Canada, with moderate to severe drought also showing up in Ontario and Quebec as of the end of August.

The drought monitor indicates conditions generally improved in Western Canada, while British Columbia saw a mix of improvements in the north and worsening drought in the central region.

About 71 per cent of the country was experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions as of the end of August, like in July.

Agri-climate specialist Trevor Hadwen with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says August was one of the driest months on record for Atlantic Canada, the country’s biggest area of concern.

He says large crop losses and extreme impacts on the blueberry harvest have been recorded there.

Hadwen says large water supply issues have also extended into Ontario and Quebec, where several local municipalities have issued advisories and urged residents to conserve water in recent weeks.

“We’re really concerned about the lack of moisture in that region to finish the crops off for this year. We’ve got a lot of crops in Ontario that are high-water-use crops, and those crops are certainly suffering through the dry conditions that we have seen over the last month,” said Hadwen.

This week, Crowe Valley became the sixth conservation authority in Ontario to declare a Level 3 low water response, indicating a potential failure of the area’s water supply to meet demand. It asked residents in municipalities including Trent Hills, Marmora and North Kawartha to cut down on water use by 30 per cent.

In August, all of Atlantic Canada’s agricultural landscape was either abnormally dry or experiencing drought. In Ontario and Quebec, that was true for 84 per cent of agricultural land.

Parts of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, where hundreds of people were forced to evacuate from wildfires, saw their driest August on record with less than 15 millimetres of rain.

The fall forecast does not bode well either, Hadwen said. While most of Canada is expected to see near-normal precipitation, Atlantic Canada could end up drier than normal.

“I think we’re in for a continuation of drought concerns, especially through Atlantic Canada and parts of Central Canada as well,” he said.

Climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, has increased the likelihood and severity of drought, scientists say.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press