Alberta's August forecast is out and some of us aren't going to like it
The August forecast has arrived, and if you’re hoping to escape the hot, dry conditions in Calgary or the soggy weather in Edmonton, well, we don’t have much to say that will thrill you.
We chatted with Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor, who broke down what we can expect to see in Alberta this month.
We’ll start in the south. Calgary has seen its share of hot and dry weather this summer, and according to Proctor, August is looking like more of the same, with temperatures expected to be in the normal to above-normal range.
Proctor said Calgary will likely see temperatures around 25Ā°C through much of the beginning of August, cooling to around 23Ā°C by the end of the month.
Precipitation-wise, don’t expect a whole lot to fall either. Proctor said Calgary and much of southern Alberta are expected to see normal to below-normal precipitation in the forecast for August.
“Calgary looks to be fairly typical at this point in time,” he said.
Edmonton, on the other hand, is looking cooler and wetter than usual.
That’s right, Edmontonians. We are not out of the woods yet.
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It’s already been a record-breaking summer for rainfall, and all of that water sitting on the ground is actually helping create the conditions for even more thunderstorms.
“We sometimes refer to it as rinse and repeat,” Proctor told us.
At the Blatchford weather station, 533.8 mm of rain fell during June and July alone. That’s already well above the previous record for the entire summer (June, July, and August), when 417 mm of rain fell in 1953.
“What we’ve done is we’ve put a tremendous amount of moisture out there,” Proctor said, noting that ditches and sloughs outside the city are full.
“It’s produced an incredible amount of moisture available for thunderstorms, and what moisture is for thunderstorms is gasoline,” he explained.
The Edmonton city centre typically sees around 60.7 mm of precipitation in August, but Proctor expects we’ll surpass that this year.
That also means temperatures from around Red Deer northward are expected to be slightly cooler than normal this month.
So, if you were hoping we’d finally dry out in August, we’re sorry. Maybe September?