The dreaded blue. It’s been many months since I’ve added the blue(colder than normal) to the map but the chance is high enough that I’m putting in colder than normal over central and north-western Alberta. This does not mean epic cold, just a degree colder than normal. Overall snowfall continues the trends from 2015 being below to well below normal for most of the province with the exception of the mountains.
Jan 1-10: Wild swings between milder and bitter cold. Even with the changes there is not likely to be much snow due.
Jan 10-20: very cold with temperatures at times dipping below -30C over Central and northern Alberta with highs struggling to get above -20C on at a few days at least. This Arctic regime won’t yield much snowfall
Jan 20-31: Continuing very cold with a change of milder air coming in. Still very dry.
Now a quick recap of 2015.
-Overall 2015 was the warmest year since 1988. and quite dry. Totalling as low as 60% of the norm. particularly in the Edmonton area, parts of NW Alberta and Far SE Alberta.
Here is a list of months that did not average hotter than normal as it’s a shorter list. February, May, September, and December.
-Thunderstorm activity was significantly improved over 2014. near to more active than normal over much of the province.
-Some of the storm highlights include severe hail damage in Ponoka, Lacombe and Red Deer. Largest hail scar of 2015 tore through the Ponoka area. This area in general endured a rather severe season in 2015, by the end of May severe thunderstorms were already roaring through. There were periods of quiet particularly in Early to mid July during a prolonged periods of heat, this added to an abundance of 30C+ days in 2015.
Tornadoes once again well below the normals and against the textbooks with just a few touchdowns. All but 1 forming within 30km of Calgary. the other in the Foremost area.
AlbertaWX - Central Alberta Storm Chasers 