A study of drought characteristics over the Canadian prairies

Abstract

Droughts, a major concern to all of Canada, particularly to the Canadian Prairies, typically occur once every three years. Most research addressing such droughts has concentrated on the large‐scale conditions associated with this form of extreme weather whereas little research has been conducted on its smaller scale characteristics. The present study addresses these smaller scale issues. Several datasets (surface observations, drought indices, and precipitation data) were used to identify droughts occurring over the Prairies since 1953 and to compare their characteristics with those years associated with non‐drought conditions. Warm season, May to September, hourly surface observations (temperature, moisture, clouds, and precipitation type) from ten observation sites were compared for four categories of moisture across the Canadian Prairies, extreme drought, drought, non‐drought, and extreme wet conditions. When compared to non‐drought or extreme wet conditions, drought and extreme drought conditions are naturally associated with warmer temperatures and drier conditions; there is also little change in the amount of total cloud cover but cloud bases are higher and the maximum temperature occurs 1–2 h later in the afternoon. Near‐surface energy increases systematically from extreme wet to extreme drought conditions.