The May forecast for Alberta is out and 'be prepared for everything'
After a snowy final few days of April in many parts of Alberta, the forecast for May is out, and it’s shaping up to be one with plenty of twists and turns.
Daily Hive recently spoke to Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), on how May is shaping up in Alberta and what is in store for us.
Is May forecast to be warm or cold in Alberta?
Looking at the forecast probability of temperature above, below, and near normal for May, Lang gave us an early look at the ECCC outlook map.
Many of Alberta’s largest cities, including Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Calgary, all fall under the 40 to 50 per cent probability of being above normal, while the Rockies and Foothills are showing a tad stronger signal, landing in the 50 to 60 per cent category.
It’s a bit of a tamer story in northern Alberta, with a 40 to 50 per cent probability that temperatures will be near normal in May.
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Will there be many May showers in the forecast?
If you’re hoping for a dry May after plenty of dumps of snow in many areas across Alberta this past month, Lang says we’re now getting into what meteorologists call “the conductive season,” where the precipitation tends more to come from storms like thunderstorms or rain showers, that type of thing, as opposed to really organized systems.
She says in that case, it makes forecasting long-range precipitation amounts even more challenging. For the month of May, models are currently indicating that there’s not much of a pattern for the province itself.
“There’s an indication that it might be drier than average in northwestern and northeastern parts of the province, and that it might be wetter than average towards the Alberta elbow area, but those are not strong indicators, and just the way the pattern is. I wouldn’t put a lot of, I wouldn’t put a lot of money on that, just because our ability to forecast precipitation and long ranges is pretty our ability is pretty low.”
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Lang says as we approach May, Albertans should simply be prepared for everything, knowing how unpredictable the weather can be in Alberta.
“Be prepared for anything, and I mean, like anything from snow to heat, and everything in between. This spring’s been all over the map, literally all over the map. Sometimes we have really dry springs, sometimes we have really wet springs. This one’s just all over the map; it’s been wild.”
On the shorter range side of things, Lang said any Albertans who are weary of more snow possible on the way, looking at the next week and 10 days, there are no major blasts of heat on the way, and no seriously organized weather systems coming through, either.
There might be some showers, like a weak system moving through that looks like it’s coming to parts of Alberta on Friday. There may be some showers and even thunder showers on that, and snow may also fall in the Rockies, but nothing really organized and on the level of what Alberta saw this past week.