hope

Snowy winter provides blast of hope in some parts of drought-stricken Prairies

Snowy winter provides blast of hope in some parts of drought-stricken Prairies

It just keeps coming. More snow. For many parts of the Canadian Prairies, it's more of the white stuff than they've seen in years. At Stan Jeeves's cattle and grain farm near Wolseley, Sask., 100 kilometres east of Regina, strong winds have blown the snow into huge piles that engulf his hay bales. He's already had more than 60 centimetres of snow this winter, compared with just three centimetres at this point last winter, according to Environment Canada data. "I think it's given me some optimism, for sure," Jeeves said. "We're receiving fairly regular snows, and so if that continues through the growing season into timely rains, we should be much better off than we have been in the past two or three years."