Crops in the Weyburn area have started to receive the much-needed warm temperatures and sunshine in the past week, but mixed in with that was a thundershower with hail on Sunday, which caused light to medium damage.

Much more warm sunny days will be needed for the crops to grow properly, according to Sask. Ag and Food's weekly crop report, as their development is far behind where it should be at this time of year.

The hail storm hit the City of Weyburn and surrounding area, but apparently didn't extend very far south or north of the city area, as the RMs of Lomond, Souris Valley and Brokenshell had no reports of hail damage. In the RM of Weyburn, there were about a dozen claims of hail damage in as of Tuesday morning, with some reports of hail stones as big as golf balls, but most of them in the marble-to-loonie size range.

No one filing the claims said they were wiped out, but said damage was light to medium. The damage report was the same at the RM of Griffin, where about a half dozen hail reports had come in by Tuesday morning, while the RM of Scott had only received two claims of hail from northeast of Yellow Grass. The biggest hailstones were golf ball size just south of Griffin, while north of Griffin the hail was pea-sized. The RM of Wellington also had a couple of reports of hail in the southeast corner of the RM.

The crops that are growing are in mostly good to excellent condition, due to the high levels of moisture in the ground, but development has been slow for all crop types.

Crop reporters rate 89 per cent of spring cereal grains as behind development and only 11 per cent as normal, and 93 per cent of oilseed crops are behind, along with 87 per cent of pulse crops. The one bright spot are fall cereals, with 31 per cent reported as normal, and 69 per cent as ahead of normal.

Meanwhile, canola and most pulse crops are now in bloom, and flax is starting to bloom in some areas, while wheat crops are just beginning to head out. The moisture levels on most crop land is considered to be in an adequate to surplus condition.

Flea beetle damage is continuing to be reported in canola crops, and grasshopper damage is starting to appear, along with leaf diseases in Crop District 2.

Some haying operations have begun in the area, with only four per cent baled or silaged, and a further 11 per cent has been cut. The quality is expected to good to excellent, but this could change if the swathed hay is not harvested soon.

In the weekly report of rainfall, which doesn't include the thundershowers on Sunday, the RMs in the area received as little as 4 millimetres (Tecumseh), 6mm in the RM of Fillmore and 7mm in the RM of Brokenshell, up to 32mm in the RM of Cymri, 22mm in the RM of Griffin, 13mm in the RMs of Lomond and Weyburn, 20mm in Wellington, 18mm in Caledonia and Francis, 16mm in The Gap and Lake Alma, and 9mm in Laurier.