It was a hot, dry summer in Southern Saskatchewan.

Jason Nimegeers is an Agri-Meteorology Technician with Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada’s Swift Current Research and Development Centre.

He says Swift Current didn’t see much precipitation during the growing season which runs from May 1st to August 31st

"We had 95.3 millimetres here at the research station, that ranked 4th driest out of 132 years of data that we've recorded."

He notes in July we had 14 days over 30 degrees Celsius which ranks as the 12th hottest on record, the warmest was in 1914 when the city had 24 days over 30 degrees.

Nimegeers said that when you look at the precipitation levels from last year's growing season, this year was a total flip-flop.

"In 2016 we had 397 millimetres which were the 3rd most in history, and this year we had 95 millimetres, which were the fourth least."

He says this week’s rainfall was a welcome sight as the area recorded about 52.1 millimetres, before that it had been some time since we saw a significant rain.

"August 1st we had 13.8 millimetres and the time before that and they were far and few between but June 13, yielded 18.4 millimetres."

Total precipitation for the year is now up to 214 millimetres, the mean rainfall for the area for the year is about 366 millimetres.