Sask. farmers grateful for 'multi-million dollar rain'

I don’t think we could have ordered it any better. If Goldilocks is a farmer in southern Saskatchewan, she might say the amount of rainfall she’s had in her fields is just right. That seems to be the consensus. It’s coming slowly over multiple days, so it’s all soaking in. You know, everybody I’ve talked to is kind of seeing the same thing. The neighbors, you know that the mood is lighter. We’re all in a better mood because you’re always on a little bit of pins and needles when you’re going into a season dryer than you’d like. Over the last few years, Saskatchewan has suffered from several consecutive droughts. For at least three years, farmers have been struggling with land so dry. In some places you could stick your hand in the cracks, but this rainfall could change that. This is probably the first time you could say that a multi $1,000,000 rain happens the 1st of May, because usually you’re looking for those in June. But we were so dry that that this one is huge for the whole industry. It’s been steady enough and strong enough to sink deep into the soil and it’s been more rain on Mccreary’s land in the past ten days than two of the last three years, he says. Mccurry measured about 80mm of rainfall in his land, which is about 3300 acres located at 90 kilometers southeast of Saskatoon. It’s a really positive position to be out in the first May and you can’t either make or kill a crop on the 1st May. But having soil reserves certainly increases the chance that that crop will will be a positive outcome. There’s no question that we will grow something. The heavy downpour should also help drench the drier parts of land susceptible to wildfire. Saskatoon Fire says this one was caused by careless smoking. It burned about 800 meters long and 200 meters wide before is put out. You know, a lot of our grasslands and the River Valley has been really dry and there’s been an extreme fire risk throughout the last four years. And so with this rain, it’s really helping green and green things up and we’re hoping they’ll reduce fire risk. But while it’s been helpful, it’s also caused rainfall warnings from Environment and Climate Change Canada. They say to expect between 50 to 75mm of rainfall by Wednesday morning in the most affected areas. That means it could cause flooding in low lying areas and lead to dangerous driving conditions. So be safe on the roads and enjoy the puddles. Dane Patterson, CBC News, Saskatoon.