Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Major Global Warming in Alberta Last Week

Hey TBC,

Long time no post, eh?

...speaking of the weather...
I live in one of the regions in Canada with the most variable weather patterns in the country - that is - we have winds called "chinooks" over here. This means we can have freezing temperatures one day (and we just did, last week) and within 12 or less hours, be feeling spring-like temperatures.

Last week was severe. We've had snow on the ground for several weeks now - bad weather, snow flurries and icy temperatures. Right in the middle of all that, last week, we had - I KID YOU NOT - SUMMER temperatures as high as 30 celcius (peak high temperature, only for a few hours on 1 day)...but only for a limited time.

Though I've lived in this region most of my life, this is still the most severe temperature fluctuation I think I've experienced. One night, when I went to sleep, I had been heating up my place with a space heater right before bedtime. In the morning when I woke up (unaware of the warming weather), I got my boots, scarf, sweater, coat and mitts on to go to the store...and stepped out of the house

AND COOKED - had to come back inside and change not only my outerwear but the layers of clothing I was used to wearing during the freezing weather from the past week.

Usually, the chinooks/warn winds are awesome because they allow you to leave your scarf and mitts off and your jacket open but this one day last week almost DEMANDED that people wear shorts!