Warm and windy for Calgary’s record-breaking forecast
Posted Jan 4, 2012 6:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hold onto your hats, batten down the hatches and maybe break out the board shorts; Wednesday could be a record-breaker in terms of Calgary weather.
Temperatures are expected to breeze past the record 12.2 degrees, with a Guaranteed High of 13.
Wind will pick up later in the afternoon with Environment Canada expecting gusts to reach upwards of 90 kilometres an hour.
However 660 meteorologist David Spence doesn’t think the city will be affected as much as other regions.
“I’m just not that confident we’re going to get super strong wind in Calgary, I think the gusts will be around 70 kilometres an hour,” says Spence. “The warning criteria is 90, the areas that will be hard hit are in Southern Alberta, south of the city and along the foothills both southwest and northwest of Calgary.”
The warm and windy weather is expected to last until Thursday before a cold front comes into the region, but Spence says it will still be above average for the rest of the week.
“What has failed to happen this year is Arctic high pressure coming down and giving us a cold winter,” he explains. “And the lack of that high pressure air is allowing these storms to come through and the Chinooks to develop in southern Alberta.”
Spence says a return to the winter weather may not happen until mid-January.
“We’ll flip-flop, the west will become cold and the east will become warm which is opposite to what we have now,” he says.
Although with any long term forecast, Spence says that could change a dozen times in the coming week.
In the meantime, city officials aren’t taking any chances and are asking pedestrians and drivers to be extra cautious.
In a release, truck transport drivers are being asked to refrain from driving with empty trailers in and around Calgary.
Calgarians are also being asked to secure loose items in their yards or on their balconies.
Natural gas or propane barbecues should be turned off at the source to avoid leaks if they become detached.
And they add emergency officials are very busy during wind events and 911 should only be called in the event of an emergency.
