Warmer temps wash over Calgary this week
Posted Jan 14, 2014 7:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Leave the parkas and long johns at home this week, Calgary is about to thaw out.
After Monday’s big snowfall, we can put the shovels down because the mercury will soar above zero.
David Spence’s forecast is calling for temperatures to reach 11 degrees this Saturday.
He adds these types of warm-ups are pretty typical for the city but warns it’s too soon to tell how long it might last.
“January is one of the drier months,” says Spence. “The fall and spring months are typically the months we get a whole lot of snow, now in December with what was supposed to be a dry month we got a lot of snow… who knows what January has in store.”
“It happens across the country ever year, there’s a point in January where almost every spot in Canada gets above zero temperatures and we see a bit of a melt,” he explains. “Now of course in Southern Alberta where we’re susceptible to a Chinook wind and what not, our January thaw is a bit longer than most of the rest of the country.”
While it’s good news for those who don’t care for winter, he says it’s not going to do much about the snow on the ground.
“Snow doesn’t really start melting fast until the sun is a little higher in the sky, the angle is still really low, so while some of the warm weather will evaporate some of the snow, we may only lose a few centimetres over the next few days,” Spence says.
It might be a Chinook starting off the warm up but after 24 hours, a ridge of high-pressure will be responsible for the thaw.
660’s meteorologist adds this might enhance the avalanche season a little earlier than usual as evidence by the highway closures near Lake Louise and Jasper.
Albertans won’t experience the more hazardous conditions until closer to March or April.
