Determining the Driest Areas in the Province

Merv Watters owns an agrochemical company that wants to promote a new herbicide that controls Kochia (Kochia Scoparia) in cereal crops. Kochia is a weed found in very dry areas. He needs to find the driest areas in the province to focus his market launch.
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Merv wants to use the Climate Mapper to learn the following:

In the last 10 years, what areas in Alberta had consistently low precipitation?

The climate database of ACIS contains over 256 million climate records dating from 1901 until 2003. Merv can create and print over 104 precipitation maps.

Process:

Select the Climate Mapper
Select these choices from the drop down menu under query:
Click on "Get Data and Refresh Map".
Click the "Print" icon near the top of the map.
In the pop-up box that appears, type "Precipitation for 1993 (mm)" and click "okay".
In the new window that appears, select, "File" - "Print".
Repeat these steps for each year.

This map breaks down the number of growing days in each region of the province, based on data collected between 1971 and 2000.

In the last 10 years, what areas in Alberta had consistently low precipitation?
From the 1993 map, Merv can see that the driest areas were east of Calgary, and areas near Oyen, Lloydminster, the Peace River, and Fort McMurray. Merv will need to view a map for each year to determine which areas have consistently low precipitation.

Back to Case Studies

Back to ACIS Home

Other Documents in the Series

AgroClimatic Information Service (ACIS): Case Studies
Finding the Length of the Growing Season
Determining the Driest Areas in the Province - Current Document
Monitoring Crop Growth
Finding Local Weather Data

For more information about the content of this document, contact Ralph Wright.
This document is maintained by Deb Sutton.
This information published to the web on July 24, 2006.
Last Reviewed/Revised on July 25, 2008.