Moisture levels throughout much of Southern Manitoba have been below normal this spring.

Environment Canada's Senior Climatologist, David Phillips expects lower precipitation levels to persist throughout the remainder of the summer.

Phillips says the situation isn't as bad in the Southwestern part of the province, however, where people are really struggling is the agricultural area around Winnipeg and directly south from there all the way to Emerson. Winnipeg has only received about 1/3 of its normal moisture. Phillips says south of Winnipeg, on average, moisture levels are only about 50% of normal. "In Morden and Winkler, precipitation is not quite as desperate. . . In Morden, precipitation over the last four months has been about 55% of normal."

Phillips says what he thinks has saved the situation is that the temperatures haven't really been that hot. "If it would have been hotter and drier, there would be a lot more moisture being evaporated and more stress. May, for example, was a couple of degrees cooler than normal, and June has been maybe normal to just slightly warmer than normal. Yes, there have been maybe five days where the temperature has been above thirty, but these have generally been only one or two days in a row."

As for what we can expect for the months of July and August, Phillips predicts mostly hot, and dry weather. "But as we get into the dog days of summer, and the crops grow, then we'll see some more humidity, and certainly some sunny and hot days."