March 8
Update March 9 - Click here to watch a 3.5mb time-lapse movie of the auroras over Alberta last night. It covers 1.5 hours from 8:30-10pm local time (3:30z-5z) and is composed of 316 shots of 15 sec. each, 3 per minute.
A coronal hole solar wind stream packing an abnormally large batch of magnetic goodies arrived today, sparking an intense geomagnetic storm from 9:30 to midnight local time (4:30-7z). The result was the most amazing aurora show I’ve seen here since May of 2005. Some of the outbursts turned the bits of remaining snow green and brightened the landscape like a full moon.
At the peak of activity, most of the northern lights were happening to the south. Only the third time I’ve seen that in the 12 years we’ve been here. Beautiful clear sky for the whole show, with clouds rolling in as soon as the storm died off. There could be another disturbance over the next day or so, but it looks like the best is over. It’ll be back in 28 days.
Time springs forward an hour right about….now. Seems like we just fell back a month ago.
nice pics Pat.
In regards to possible weather changes to the bland stuff of the last 90 days
Could we be seeing a possible change with some moisture starting on the 14 to 16 of March. Seems as though there may be some consensus here. Tis the season for heavy snowfalls for western Calgary, red deer areas now.
Cheers, Anthony in Airdrie
March 9th, 2008 at 3:58 pmHi Anthony, thanks
I was just perusing the 12z GFS and it’s got us lined up for a blizzard next weekend
March 9th, 2008 at 4:50 pmIt’s nice to see that the cold shot won’t last for long.
I’m still up for a couple feet of snow if Ma Nature can dish it out
who cares for snow! storms, storms, storms!…i have a huge case of SDS…
March 10th, 2008 at 9:10 pmthe northern lights were insane in fort mcmurray!
haha brandon
You might not have to wait till your trip to see some wicked weather if this crazy stuff continues. Maybe April will be like July this year
Any snow left up there in tarland?
March 11th, 2008 at 2:35 amone last comment here…there was TONS of snow in Ft. Mac…my girlfriends parents house has at least a foot, maybe more on the roof alone! before we departed, the temps there were frigid, with Ft.Mac havings temps of -25 to -30, being in the cold arctic air when we were in the warm sector. when we got there the temps rose to 2-5 celcius, and started to melt all that snow and turned the roads into slop!
March 11th, 2008 at 7:57 pm