Alberta Foothills Weather

Pretty boring weather around here since the last post. Foggy, mild, and quiet. The warm pacific air has pushed so far up into Alaska and Northwestern Canada it will be interesting to see if winter can make a serious return now. The forecast models are suggesting the arctic air will make a rush south next [...]

A beautiful February night for standing outside snapping photos of the eclipse. Light breeze, barely below freezing, and only a few wispy clouds as the moon appeared. The skies cleared off completely before the real show began. As the eclipse started to darken the countryside, the Snow moon coyote party that [...]

A batch of freezing fog rolled in around midnight last night with a light southwest breeze, leaving a nice coast of frost on everything this morning. The sun burned through by 10am, giving a brilliant show for about an hour before it all melted away.
By noon we were above zero and are at +5 as [...]

The warm continues and the snow is disappearing quickly. After a windy day Saturday, it has been well above zero for the past two days. +8C yesterday and 10 today, with more above normal temps for this week and if the GFS model is on track, no chance of real cold until the end of [...]

Hot today!
Amazing temperatures for the middle of February. Red Deer broke it’s old record high of 8.4C when they made 10C this afternoon, we beat that by at least 2c out here, with our weather station reporting 14.4C at 4pm. Records fell all over the province today, with only the extreme north and east parts [...]

So close, yet so far…
The goods rolled into central Alberta yesterday as expected, heavy snowfall warnings went out before noon for the Drayton valley - Whitecourt - Smoky Lake - Stettler - Red Deer oval. Initially firing up in the Swan hills, the snow drifted south over Edmonton and things were looking promising around here, [...]

Enough with the wind already!
The north wind finally died off Saturday afternoon, just long enough to scrape the few cm of snow off the driveway, before it started up from the south and blasted all night and Sunday morning. The light snow that came with it, along with any loose bits from Friday, packed [...]

Edited 3pm Friday, Feb 8, 2008
SEVERE WEATHER BULLETIN
ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA
AT 2:45 PM MST FRIDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2008.
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WATCHES/WARNINGS IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHERN ALBERTA…

BLIZZARD WARNING FOR:
CYPRESS HILLS PROVINCIAL PARK - FOREMOST
CROWSNEST PASS - PINCHER CREEK - WATERTON PARK.

[...]

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Red Deer - Ponoka - Innisfail - Stettler
10:23 AM MST Thursday 7 February 2008
Winter storm watch for
Red Deer - Ponoka - Innisfail - Stettler continued
Strong winds and blowing snow will herald the return of Arctic air Friday.
The potential for severe winter weather exists over these regions.
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Blizzard or no blizzard, that is the question. Friday or [...]

Nice warmup today, gaining 20C and climbing above the freezing mark for a few hours late this afternoon for the first time since Jan.26.
A huge chinook arch formed up over the foothills after noon and slowly pushed over here by sunset. The strange looking thumbnail picture below is a squeezed to fit version of the [...]