Saturday was the last day of an extended heat wave in Saskatchewan, with temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius at some locations.

Moose Jaw was the national hot spot at 42.3 C on Saturday. Assiniboia and Weyburn were just over 40 C.

The extreme heat also increased the potential for combine fires.

“A lot of chaff builds up on the front of those radiators,” says Sherri Roberts, a provincial crops extension specialist at Weyburn. “You have to keep these grids cleaned off and watch the combines”

One combine was destroyed in a field fire on Saturday, about half-an-hour south of Regina, near Rouleau. No one was hurt and there was no crop damage.

Roberts estimates about 20 percent of combining is done in the southeast, mostly lentils, fall seeded crops and some early seeded cereals.

There is some concern about the impact last week’s heat will have on soybeans.

“They are developing their pods and setting seed and if we don’t get some rain pretty soon, there will be once again some issues on the yield.”

Roberts say there was a nice rain about 10 days ago, but not all areas in the southeast received the moisture.

“Some of the corn fields I’ve been scouting, the ears are a little small. We really need to get some moisture, hopefully this week.”

Roberts says there will be some nice yields for cereal crops in the southeast that received consistent rain during the grain season.

She also had an opportunity to check out some crops from the road on the way to a clubroot conference in North Battleford.

“It is really dry from Regina to Saskatoon. A lot of those crops are being taken off early. They did not get the moisture that we received in the southeast. You get into that Outlook area, it is really dry except for the folks who are lucky enough to have irrigation.”

(Photo credit: Rouleau Fire Department/Facebook)