With meteorologists predicting a 60 per cent chance this winter will be cooler and stormier than last because of La Niña, local farmers are watching the weather and preparing for how the next few months might differ from a year ago.
“If you talk to older farmers they’ll say, weather has always been an issue, but the last few years it’s really been challenging,” area farmer Bradley Grice told Capital Current.
Human-induced climate change is a major factor. The Winter 2023/2024 Climate Trends and Variations Bulletin from Environment and Climate Change Canada reported temperatures nationally were 5.2°C above average for the 2023/2024 winter, the warmest since 1948.
Farmland occupies about 40 per cent of Ottawa’s rural lands, with nearly 300,000 acres farmed by 1,200 different operations.
In simple terms, La Niña is the opposite of El Niño, the phenomenon in effect last winter.
Thomas Walker, an assistant professor in environmental engineering at Carleton University, said in a phone interview that the “pressure oscillation in the Pacific creates waves in the atmosphere that have far-reaching effects around the world.”
“We see the effects in global temperature records, where El Niño tends to elevate global temperatures and La Niña tends to depress [them] a bit.”
“In our region, we might not see as extreme a winter in terms of warming, but there is a likelihood of it getting a lot wetter,” Walker said.
Eastern Ontario is far from La Niña, but Walker says if we do feel its effects, it will likely come in storms. “We have seen a lot of tropical storms that bring moisture to the northern parts of the world, so it’s possible that we’ll get a lot of snow this year,” said Walker.
This interactive map shows some of the farms surrounding Ottawa. Click on the icons for their information.
Scott Sigurdson owns Indian Creek Orchard Gardens. It grows seasonal fruits and vegetables and he is particularly fond of garlic. He says keeping snow off greenhouses and frost off the soil guzzles his resources. This year, it will be more of a concern.
“We’re going to spend more on propane over the cold season. We got off really easy in terms of that last winter. Our propane consumption could go up quite a bit if we have a longer, colder winter,” said Sigurdson.
Bradley Grice grows a variety of vegetables year-round at Broadwood Farm. He is more concerned about moisture.
“Ottawa is a giant valley, and depending on how much snow we’ve had, all that excess water has to drain through the valley,” Grice said. “If we have a lot of moisture because we’ve had a lot of snow or rain, that becomes a real problem and that’ll delay planting. Normally, you would be planting in April, that could delay several weeks into May.”
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says more snow could be helpful outside the greenhouse.
“Colder winters without snow cover can result in freeze damage to plants exposed to cold temperatures. However, if cold temperatures receive abundant snow cover, the plants are protected against freezing and desiccation injury,” AAFC spokesperson Samantha Seary said in an email.
David Mazur Goulet, a farmer at Heartbeet Farm, says farmers try to control their environments as much as possible.
“Using structures like greenhouses, using irrigation systems, and having access to water are some ways we can have a little bit more control over our production. However, it is not feasible to have only greenhouses everywhere,” Goulet said in a phone interview, “at least at our scale.”
