Dry grass at the Redcliff Campgound

By Teagan Rasche

Green to brown: warm weather drying up grass in southeastern Alberta

Jul 13, 2021 | 5:16 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Walking barefoot on soft grass is symbolic of summertime, but our hotter than normal weather has turned green spaces into dry and rough grass.

It’s been impacting landscape designer Kreggan Scharnatta, who says the heat has been slowing things down and putting them behind schedule.

“All the grass everything is dead within weeks that we just freshly installed so there’s warranty,” Scharnatta said. “We’ve really stressed irrigation but people don’t think they need irrigation, they can just water it themselves.”

Scharnatta says new sod needs a lot of water and maintenance, which is not easy to do with the current weather.

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“Especially in this heat, you need to water it three hours a day minimum just to get it fully watered,” Scharnatta said.

With all the heat and sun in southeastern Alberta, the grass at the Redcliff Campground has dried up.

Derrin Thibault with the town says it’s difficult to stay ahead of.

“The campground itself is not irrigated, that’s why it looks so poor here,” Thibault said. “We are doing a campground upgrade and in the second phase and we plan on adding irrigation so that it’s not so burnt.”

Water and electrical upgrades are coming to the campground. Thibault says it should be done in September, meaning next summer the campground could be green.

This year, June had one-third less precipitation than normal and Environment Canada meteorologist Kyle Fougere says July came in very hot and dry.

“That is the forecast for basically the rest of the summer,” Fougere said. “We are expecting this summer to end up being hotter and drier than normal.”

With that weather forecast, Thibault says the fire ban is still in effect in Redcliff.

For landscapers, the weather is making the grass the worst it’s been in years.

“We’ve never had such setbacks in the schedule in things because of the heat,” Scharnatta said. “We know it’s landscaping, we know it’s summer, we know it’s all weather dependant on Mother Nature, but this year for some reason is just over the top hot.”