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
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
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
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
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
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
The global weather scene is heating up like never before
April was the 12th month in a row where the all-time monthly temperature record was broken
Reading Time: 3 minutes Psychologically, May might have felt cool — especially compared to the extremely warm start Alberta has seen this year. But overall, May was still warmer than average. This makes it the eighth month in a row with above-average temperatures in all three of our main regions (Peace River, Edmonton, and Calgary). For those of you who […] Read more
The heat’s been on for months — and there’s no end in sight
You could almost say winter ended three months ago, and the long-range forecasts are for more hot, dry weather
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s been a rather remarkable spring across Alberta this year. Looking back at the weather records for 2016 you could almost say that spring arrived in February, with temperatures running over 6° above long-term averages. Those mild temperatures continued into March, with mean temperatures that were around 5 degrees above average. The big question after such […] Read more
An early spring may lead to an early start to thunderstorm season
These awe-inspiring storms are associated with hot, humid days — but they can form under other conditions, too
Reading Time: 3 minutes With a pretty warm first half of April across Alberta I won’t be surprised if we end up seeing an early start to thunderstorm season. So I figured that maybe we should have an early start to my annual look at thunderstorms. To begin with, we’ll need to talk about one of my weather pet peeves, […] Read more
A big-picture look at why this winter was so unusually warm
An ongoing battle between a western ridge and eastern trough explains why Alberta has been warmer than average for so long
Reading Time: 3 minutes No matter which way you look at it, winter is over across agricultural Alberta — and it was definitely a warm one. While it won’t go down in the record books, Alberta’s been in a persistently long warm spell with seven consecutive months of above-average temperatures recorded at all three of the main locations. Winter […] Read more
Could this be one of the warmest springs on record?
AccuWeather is forecasting an exceptionally warm and dry spring — and it has good reasons for making such a bold prediction
Reading Time: 3 minutes AccuWeather came out early in February with its spring weather prediction, so I figured that maybe I should join in and take a look at what the different forecasters are calling for this spring. After all, meteorological spring starts on the first day of March (March-April-May). In what I think is a pretty bold move, AccuWeather […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
