With all the nice weather Airdronians have been enjoying in January, it may come as a surprise to find out 2015 has started much as 2014 did.
“Everyone remembers last year as being one of the coldest, snowiest on record. Everyone forgets how warm January was last year. In fact, January last year has been warmer so far than this year,” said Environment Canada Meteorologist Bill McMurtry.
“As we stand in 2015 up to and including Jan. 26, the average temperature in January has been -3.4°C. (For) the entire month (of January) last year, the average temperature was -3.1°C. By the time the month is done, they’re pretty much going to be equal,” he said.
According to McMurtry, Airdrie and area did have some very cold days at the beginning of January with only the latter part of the month seeing above average highs, perhaps leading residents to believe January 2015 has been an improvement over January 2014, which had consistently warmer temperatures throughout the month.
“We’ve seen very warm temperatures over the last few days. Many, many records have been broken across the province,” he said.
“When we had some of the recent records set, we had some 120 to 130 year old records that were smashed by three or four degrees.”
McMurtry cited Jan. 25 when a record high of 17.2°C was set at the Calgary International Airport (the closest station to Airdrie that maintains historical weather data), breaking the old record of 13.1°C set in 2007. Records at the Calgary International Airport go back to 1882, according to McMurtry.
“The average temperature for January, based on Calgary International Airport statistics, is -7.1°C so we’re seeing temperatures in the order of about three to four degrees higher. That’s a significant departure from the average but we saw it last year as well,” he said. “Airdrie temperatures would have been very similar – perhaps one to two degrees cooler – but for the most part very similar.”
Record temperatures are set when a temperature is reached and maintained for a period of one to two minutes, according to McMurtry.
“It’s minimal,” he said. “It’s a very brief period of time.”
Airdrie will soon see a return to winter as colder temperatures along with snow are expected to arrive on Jan. 30, according to McMurtry.
“We have one more day of nice weather and then we start to see a cooling trend throughout the end of the work week,” he said.
“As we get towards Friday (Jan. 30) and the weekend, that’s when we see the system moving in and a return to some cooler, Arctic air and a big change in temperatures. We’re going to see temperatures about 30 degrees cooler than what we’ve been experiencing by the time we get to Sunday (Feb. 1) and Monday (Feb. 2) morning.”
The good news? It’s going to be even colder in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, according to McMurtry, and temperatures in the mountains, including at the ski hills, should not be as cold.
