Alberta Foothills Weather

The weather looked fine until we got there.
For a week, Brandon Brown and I had been planning a trip to Abraham Lake on Saturday, before the cold arrived. Right up till the night before the models were showing nice conditions out there, light wind, with a good chance for some nice sunrise clouds. On the road shortly after 5am it looked good all the way out, overhead we could see the edge of the ridge to the south and even a few lenticular looking things in the moonlight.
The wind started to pick up near Nordegg and was ripping at Windy Point, a little clipper low to the east was pulling air through the valley. We found calm at Cline River for a sunrise try, open turquoise water gushing into Abraham Lake with oodles of icy treats everywhere, but no happy light. Snow showers wafting down the peaks and thin cloud piling up against the front range cut off most of the sunrise, the sun only peeking through the haze a few times all morning. The wind came out again as we got to the Kootenay Plains and stayed with us for the rest of the ride. When we got out for a look near Bighorn Dam it was really chewing on my face. Coming straight down the lake at 30-50kmh, I hid from it in the trees peeking out at Brandon down on the ice shooting head on into the teeth of it.
Winter chased us out and all the way home, ending the day with a snow squall at Gleniffer Lake when we tried for a sunset stop.
I didn’t take a lot of photos, but we did hike around a fair bit and got to absorb some of the most beautiful country in the world. Getting to the Siffleur River for a drink of the scenery always makes my day, add to that some great chatter, a nice relaxed drive, and you have a great trip.

The wind picked up steadily and the temperatures started dropping as soon as we got back and then the snow started. We got maybe 5cm of white but the wind blew most of it off the roads, which were cold enough for nothing to stick for the most part. A drift here and there but really a non-event in these parts.
The temperature has been on a downward slide for the past 24 hours, sitting at -22C as I type, only 5 stations in the province are above -20, but only one is below -30, so far.
Wednesday morning is going to be a sharp one with temps getting closer to -40, but there is great news to go with that, a break in the pattern.
What was a unbreakable dome of cold to the end of the month for a several model runs, with little lows getting crushed in southern BC or bouncing off to the south, has been compromised. A low coming onshore Friday was supposed to stand no chance and get squashed in Cranbrook but now has gained some jam and is forecast to push all the way to the foothills Saturday. The cold block takes a hit and starts to come apart and then….
all bets are off.
Hints of a big low spinning into the coast and up to the Gulf of Alaska next week could be good news if it holds.
Going by what the models say, it shouldn’t look much different snow-wise around here 10 days from now. BC is the place to be if you want snow, they have a lot more in the forecast for the next week. Still a good chance for a change before then, it could push west a bit more and give us a dump, it doesn’t have far to push at this point.
I’m on the fence whether I want snow now or not.

One more shot of nice and off the deep end we go.
It’s been nicer than it should be since the last post, one little taste of winter but not enough to harden us up for what is coming. I can visulize Bill Matheson making vigorous downward crushing jestures while telling us about the “most dreaded of all meteorological phenomena – the Siberian high” on the weather tonight on ITV. 30 years ago. Sigh.

The snow scene around here is grim is you are a sledder, but pretty darn sweet if you are a mama deer, or any outdoor critter for that matter. At this point, they have had a two month holiday, probably looking for somewhere to cool off most of the time. We took a little spin out west on Sunday, it was hard to tell what time of the year it was. Mostly it looked and felt like April, we found 11C in a few spots where the chinook winds were blowing.

The bitter cold that was supposed to be here yesterday has been pushed back for the last time. The low that did the pushing sweeps past tomorrow to the north, the next one in line is the killer for us. It tracks along the Alaska coast and skirts the southern edge of the cold over northern BC, reforms right here somewhere on Saturday night and yanks down a seemingly bottomless pool of arctic air behind it on Sunday. There is a chance for some large temperature gradients and maybe some significant snowfalls along the battle lines mid next week, which are forming up through southern BC and along the Rockies and foothills. Looking very cold for the majority of the prairies all the way to February. Yuck.

Fingers crossed for nice weather Saturday morning, a jaunt to the mountains before what could be a long stretch inside.

15C is a bit silly for this time of year, but I didn’t hear too many people complaining about it Wednesday.
Anywhere without snow, which is anywhere south or east of here, gained a few more degrees than those of us surrounded by white. We managed 6.5C out in the middle of a field, a few more C were to be had closer to the city as the fields turn to pavement, while ~30 miles southwest it was 15C in Sundre, right under chinook arch.
Gee what a nice day, the local beehive was fully alive and buzzing, there were even some optics to start the year, playing in the fine feathery edge of the wave.

Although it’s only been a few days since the last post, it seems like another large bite has been chewed out of winter. Perhaps its the relief of seeing the gruesome crush of cold that was forecast for the 11th piffle out a bit, leaving just enough to temper us for what is inevitably coming.
The Hawaiian pipleline that has been miraculously holding, concentrating the cold way up north, must break down at some point. As of this evening’s GFS run, this is now going to happen on Sunday, the 15th. It looks like a water balloon popping in slow motion, with arctic air gushing out. I’ve got my fingers crossed for an extension of the tropical push instead. A bit more snow is starting to show further down the line but nothing epic yet.
Not that the epic ones show at 10 days out anyway.
If old man winter is going to have his fun this year he better get at it, it’s going to be March before he knows it.

I’ve been kicking around the thought of posting some sort of wrap-up for year’s end for a few weeks, yesterday the quest to find the favorite photos of 2011 began. We tried to find one for each month, but photo ops seemed to clump together more this year than in years past. Long stretches of nothingness in the depth of the cruel winter we had, a big burst of activity in July then another drought in the dry, dusty fall A few December tours have resulted in absolutely zilch, no animals, no frost, no snowdrifts, no optic marvels of any kind.

Winter so far has been a 6 week holiday, even though it’s less than two weeks old. When winter pulls in mid November and stays till March, like it did last year, there is no happy. Busting into the new year with the balmy weather we’ve had so far has already taken a massive bite out of the season. The end is 10 days away.
Big cold is persistently showing on the long range, sweeping down on the 11th like the sword of Damocles. It may only stay a few days or it could stay till March again. Good time for folks to make sure their vehicle is ready.
We have a fair base of snow left, filling the ditches and potholes, but need at least a foot before the sleds can come out. None of that showing yet on the models.

A few of our favorite shots from 2011, only one has been on the blog before:

January 6: This was one of the few nice days of January 2011, a chinook had pushed in and these iridescent clouds were playing in the wave over the foothills.

March 17: Warm weather has been pouring in from the west for a few days after a long stretch of deep cold. Wavy bits and incoming moisture combine for a warm winter sunset.

May 2: The sun was very active in 2011, burping off dozens of big CMEs, flaring off more than it has in 8 years, but that only got me fewer Aurora photos than almost any other year in the past 10. Clouds killed a few ops but mystery got most of them. Many times I expected a hit that never came. The best thing about it? It can’t be worse for me next year.

June 21: This was the first supercell in the neighborhood for 2011. After getting lured to Innisfail by a dying cell we spied this beauty off to the west and gave chase. A fantastic cell to start the season, it sat and posed for us for a good long while. (link) (link)

July 1: Something about the first of July in Alberta makes the noctilucent clouds pop. Almost every year they show up on this night. (link)

July 4: These are some of the last sparks left in a classic LP supercell that entertained myself and the hordes of mosquitoes for a few hours west of Carstairs this night. Most of the 100+ shots from this session were ruined by Winnipeg style clouds of microvampires filling the scene. (link)

July 6: It’s not often that I drive more than an hour for a lightning op, but this eve was an exception. Training supercells were infesting the Drayton corridor with no signs of stopping, giant bolts could be seen easily from here before dark, 80 miles away, so off I went. A very nice outing, I sat on the south edge and watched the storms rake the southern edge of Edmonton with a never ending show of power. Before I knew it, it was way past midnight, way east of the QE2. A long day with an eye already on the next day. (link)

July 7: Tornado day in the neighborhood. Got down to Sundre in time to watch the birth of it all, and managed to get into position before the first of many tornadoes that day, dropped in the hills west of Bearberry. The full gamut of the chase was to be experienced, from jaw dropping awe at the sight of a massive mesocyclone in full spin only a mile away, or less. The creeping adrenaline rush when something dark is chasing you, and gaining. Finding out there was serious damage very close to where you just were. What a day. (link) (link) (link)

July 15: We spied this deer in the middle of a Canola field while out looking for a possible tornado path west of Eckville. Never did find any signs of a touchdown but this op made up for it a bit.

July 18: This one one of three trips out to the Ghostpine wind farm near Trochu this year. Not terribly exciting to a lot of people, but there is something graceful about them. Not that I would want to live anywhere near one. I’m done with the sound these things make before I can get away from them.

August 5: Timing put me on the beach at Sylvan Lake when this storm slowly rolled in. Two hail planes bombed this thing forever but never seemed to be able to dent it. I got quite a few shots of them bouncing around in the edges of the core, but this one clearly shows the plane getting lifted by the updraft as it approaches. (link)

September 10: Harvest was extremely dusty this year, this was before it got bad. Another week and all hope of seeing a hill to the west was gone for a month.

With any luck, Ma Nature will soon provide some tasty scenery, we are overdue for a frosting.
Happy New Year!
All the best to you in 2012.

The last total eclipse until April 2014 was a bit of a disappointment, all my own fault. Too much satellite watching, not enough “get atter”.
A lee trough was already building along the foothills at nap time, it looked like there may be some high cloud on the other side of the mountains and the chance of some light wave cloud along the hills on this side for the morning.
A few hours later at getup time the IR was showing even more waving along the hills but a break west of here.
We decided to try and find something local for a backdrop for a few shots but came up completely blank and wound up stopping in a few random places just to get a tele shot. Mid eclipse the moon started to fade behind a invisible sheath of high cloud far to the northwest. Got to watch the rest of it on the Calgary news, they had a clear view of the whole thing.
I think I’ll start planning now for the upcoming ‘tetrad’, four total eclipses in a row, in just two years.
April 15, 2014 – October 8, 2014 – April 4, 2015 – September 28, 2015