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By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

drought conditions

Red Deer just had its sixth driest September in 112 years

Oct 1, 2025 | 4:56 PM

Sept. 9: 5.6 mm

Sept. 30: 0.2 mm

That’s all the precipitation seen at Red Deer Regional Airport last month, and it means it was the sixth driest September in 112 years of records, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The record low is 0.0 mm in September 2022.

Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Natalie Hasell says the normal amount of precipitation for Red Deer in September is 38.3 mm.

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But it wasn’t just September that was dry.

Before Sept. 9, the last day with recorded rain at the airport was 19 days earlier on Aug. 21.

In fact, August saw just 33.3 mm recorded, well below the normal of 70.1 mm, making it the 27th driest August in 112 years of data.

July was much wetter, with 73.1 mm, though was still below the normal of 90 mm — making it the 55th driest July.

Hasell does place one caveat on those figures: if rain is blowing sideways and not going into the gauge, the data may seem a bit deceiving.

“Alberta was under the influence of areas of high pressure at the surface, also looking at ridges aloft; so if you’re looking at how the jetstream behaves, sometimes it’s kind of flat, sometimes it’s curvy, and when it’s curvy, things can slow down and it doesn’t move much,” she explains.

There’s more science to it, but in a nutshell, the conditions the Red Deer area and much of southern Alberta experienced in September have begun to move east.

Meaning… more rain and possibly the ‘s-word’ are on the way.

“Red Deer’s temperatures right now are quite close to normal. You’re still above normal, but not nearly as much as you were,” says Hasell, noting overnight lows will get down close to zero this week, or even below zero by week’s end.

Overnight Oct. 4 is currently forecast to bring a 60 per cent chance of showers.

Because of the seasonal change and the growing season being over, Environment and Climate Change Canada will no longer be issuing frost advisories, thus they advise you to protect your plants if necessary.

Hasell says Red Deer’s normal precipitation levels are 20.9 mm in October, 16 mm in November, and 16.4 mm in December.

“I’d hope there’s some precipitation because we will need it there,” she says.

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