By THE CANADIAN PRESS Weather conditions at opposite ends of the country this weekend will be as different as well, east is from west.

The central Canadian province of Saskatchewan was bracing Friday for as much as 18 inches of snow this weekend after temperatures reached 82 degrees this week.

By Bill Graveland, THE CANADIAN PRESS CALGARY - Researchers from Canada and the United States are sharing ideas this week in hopes of discovering better ways to predict the droughts that devastate crops across the Prairies - dry spells that may get even worse as the climate changes.

By Susan Gordon, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Jun. 19--Call it the sugar diet. A University of Puget Sound botanist and her students are testing the sweetener's restorative powers on the South Sound's vulnerable short-grass prairies.

By Ann DeFrange, The Daily Oklahoman Dec. 20--In Washington Irving's 1834 book, "A Tour on the Prairies," he described the area his party crossed in what is presently eastern Oklahoma County.