This graphic shows the daily low (blue) and high (red) temperature during the last 12 months with the area between them shaded grey. It is superimposed over the corresponding averages (thick lines), and with percentile bands (inner band from 25th to 75th percentile, outer band from 10th to 90th percentile). The bar at the top of the graph is red where both the daily high and low are above average, blue where they are both below average, and white otherwise.

Doubt about global warming isn’t coming from scientists

It’s not hard to create doubt about sound science — 
the tobacco industry proved that years ago

Reading Time: 3 minutes Several years ago, Weather Underground’s co-founder Jeff Masters wrote a blog about the manufactured doubt industry, how and when it was created, and how it now plays into the current global warming or climate change controversy. At the time I emailed Masters asking permission to use some of the information from his blog in an […] Read more

This map shows the total amount of precipitation that fell across the Prairies during January. You can see it was a fairly dry month for most regions, with a large portion of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and western Manitoba seeing less than 60 per cent of average.

Articles on climate change provoke some readers

Like politics and religion, global warming is a polarizing topic —
but it’s one that we should discuss

Reading Time: 3 minutes Over the years, some of my weather articles have provoked or inspired various amounts of comments. What surprised me recently was the number of emails I received about the top weather events from around the world in 2016 — in particular, several from readers who accused me of leaning too heavily towards climate change or […] Read more


This map shows the total amount of precipitation that has fallen so far this winter (Nov. 1 to Jan. 15) compared to the long-term average. So far it has been a fairly dry winter across pretty much all regions of Alberta, with western areas being the wettest and northern and eastern regions the driest. Only a few locations west and northwest of Edmonton are above average, with much of the northern and Peace River regions reporting low to extremely low amounts.


The top global weather stories of 2016 had a common theme

Whether you look at temperatures, ice at the poles, air quality, or the 
Fort Mac fires, the evidence of a warming planet is clear


Reading Time: 3 minutes It seems that a new list of the top global weather stories of 2016 comes out every day. So I thought I would go through some of these lists and pick the top stories that are shared by all of the lists. Of course, I might have a slight bias towards Canadian stories. I don’t think […] Read more

This graphic shows the total number of severe summer weather events that took place across the Prairie provinces in 2016. A quick look at the graph shows that hail was the main severe weather event last summer. Manitoba led the way with 147 hail events and Alberta came in a close second with 144 events.

When it came to severe weather, Alberta (thankfully) was no. 2

We still had nearly twice as many ‘hail events’ as usual, 
but Manitoba was worse off for once


Reading Time: 3 minutes The new year comes with the usual list of Top 10 things about the previous year, and in the category of weather, this really appears to be the case. There are the Top 10 Prairie weather stories, Top 10 Canadian weather stories, and the Top 10 world weather stories (which often tend to be skewed […] Read more


This map shows the total amount of precipitation that fell across agricultural Alberta during November compared to long-term averages.  Overall, it was a relatively dry month with most areas seeing moderately low to very low amounts of precipitation.  The one exception is the area between the central and northern region which saw average to moderately high amounts.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, says our weather expert

Being snowed in at Christmas has many advantages, argues Daniel Bezte, 
but big Yuletide snowstorms are relatively rare

Reading Time: 3 minutes The holiday season is about traditions, and so it’s time once again to do my traditional look at Christmas weather across the Prairies. In particular, a look back to see what the warmest and coldest Christmases were, and if there have ever been big Christmas snowstorms. I’ve shared this with you before, but at this […] Read more

This map shows the total amount of precipitation, compared to average, that has fallen across the Prairies during the 60-day period ending Nov. 7. This gives us a good idea of moisture levels heading into freeze-up. The map shows a large portion of the Prairies has seen above-average rainfall (blue regions) with the wettest areas found in Saskatchewan and western Manitoba. The only below-average areas are found in south-central Alberta and extreme far northwestern Alberta.


Will it be a typical La Niña winter on the Prairies this year?

La Niña usually brings more snow and colder temperatures, 
but some forecasts are painting a different picture for this year


Reading Time: 3 minutes After nearly 11 months of global record-setting temperatures, North America has had its turn seeing the warmest weather on the planet — at least when compared to average. I’ll have to admit: It really bugs me when people use the infamous line, “Where is global warming now?” every time temperatures in their region are colder […] Read more


This map shows the total amount of precipitation across the Prairies during the first two months of this summer as a departure from average. Areas that are dark yellow to brown have seen below-average amounts; light-yellow, blue and green areas are near average; and dark-green, blue and purple areas have seen above-average amounts. You can see a large portion of the Prairies has been relatively wet, with southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan being the wettest, receiving between 100 millimetres to more than 120 millimetres more precipitation 
than average.

There’s a lot of truth in many sayings about the weather

Ones that predict what’s going to happen in the next little while 
make a lot of sense, but long-term predictions are pretty iffy

Reading Time: 3 minutes There are a number of different weather sayings, and weather folklore, that have their base in sound weather principles. For example, one of the most well-known sayings is, “Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” This saying works pretty well and makes sense if you live in the […] Read more

This map shows the total precipitation across the Prairies over the last three months. Most areas have seen near to slightly above average rainfall so far this growing season, with only southern and central Alberta seeing below-average amounts.

Our heads are in the clouds

Having trouble sorting out cumulonimbus, stratocumulus, 
and nimbostratus? Here’s your cloud-spotting guide

Reading Time: 3 minutes I’m currently off exploring the mountains of southeastern B.C. and southwestern Alberta and due to my travels, will have go with a more generic weather article this issue. I decided to take a look at something that ties into pretty much all of our weather — clouds. If we were to define a cloud, we […] Read more


This map shows total precipitation in Alberta so far this growing season (up to June 21) compared to the long-term average. The Peace and northern regions have seen average to well-above-average amounts of precipitation so far this growing season. In the central and southern regions, eastern sections have seen near-average amounts while western regions have been dry to very dry.


Clearing up the confusion about humidity

The term ‘relative humidity’ is commonly used, but most people 
don’t know what it means and why it’s misleading

Reading Time: 4 minutes As we move into the heart of summer and with all this moisture around in many regions, I think it’s time to revisit one misunderstood concept — humidity. To be more specific, we are going to look at exactly what humidity is, how we measure it, and how it is reported and interpreted. The simplest definition […] Read more

This map shows the total amount of precipitation that fell across the Prairies compared to average during the 30-day period ending on June 9. It is evident that this has been a fairly active period, with a large portion of all three Prairie provinces showing near- to above-average amounts of rainfall. The wettest regions were found in Alberta, stretching from Grande Prairie southeastwards towards Coronation and western Saskatchewan and southeastern Saskatchewan to southwestern Manitoba. Interestingly, north-central Saskatchewan was very dry during this period.

It’s that time of year when severe summer weather and tornadoes can form

Tornadoes have occurred in nearly all regions of Canada — 
here is what to look for when a severe storm is approaching

Reading Time: 3 minutes As we enter the peak season for severe weather across the Canadian Prairies, I figured now would be a good time to continue our look at severe weather and tornadoes. While Alberta doesn’t see the same number of tornadoes relative to areas to the east and south, the province is still subject to these events. Before […] Read more