Skies will stay dry after rainy July

By Lethbridge Herald on September 16, 2025.

After a wet July in which 81.1 millimetres of rain fell upon Lethbridge, the skies have dried up.

In August, the city only saw 12 mm of precipitation and 10 days into September, zero amounts of measurable rain have been recorded.

Some moisture could be coming soon, however, with a chance of minimal amounts of rain in the forecast from Saturday through Tuesday.

Temperatures will also be down from the high of 29.8C recorded on  Wednesday. Thursday’s high of 25C was just under three degrees above the normal maximum temperature for Sept. 10 of 22.29C  with the record being 32.2 set in 1968. A record low temperature of -1.7C was set in 1955. The highest low temperature on this date was 15  in 2017 while the minimum high was 1.1C in 1921.

Despite the lack of rainfall, most reservoirs in the Oldman and South Saskatchewan river basins remained at normal levels.

As of ealy last week, the Oldman reservoir was at 61 per cent capacity, which is below normal for this time of year. St. Mary Reservoir (58 per cent) and Waterton (54 per cent) were both in the normal range as were Keho, Pine Coulee, Chin, Forty Mile, Milk River Ridge and Payne Lake.

David Westwood, general manager of the The St. Mary River Irrigation District on SMRID’s website in late August stated to irrigators that the water allocation will remain at 12 inches and shutoff for the season is set for Oct. 9.

Westwood says due to rainfall during the irrigation season, the combined storage capacity is considered average for a non-drought year. But despite decreased irrigation demand because of rainfall, SMRID anticipates winter levels will be slightly below target for the  upcoming winter. But it is confident winter storage levels will be sufficient and is optimistic about next year’s irrigation system.