Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Heat building across western Prairies

A building ridge of high pressure in the upper atmosphere over western Canada will bring sunshine and increasingly hot temperatures this week over the Prairies.. especially over southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Temperatures are expected to hit the 30 degree mark today and soar into the mid to upper 30s by mid to late week. In fact, it's possible that some areas of southeastern Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan may hit the 40 degree mark by Friday. (watch out for Val Marie, SK on Friday.. they could hit 42C if the models are right..)

Southern MB will not be quite as hot as we'll be on the eastern edge of the building heat wave. However, it does look like we'll be hitting the 30 degree mark by the end of the week into the weekend. Most of the week looks dry, although models hint at some instability the next couple of days which could produce isolated pop-up thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Most areas however should remain rain free this week.. a welcome change from the unsettled stormy pattern of the past few weeks.

2 comments:

  1. Thurs Jul 5th.. temperatures soared into the upper 30s across southern Alberta today.. peaking at 36.6C at Medicine Hat. 850 temperatures were around 27C today and are forecast to be even warmer Friday with 850 mb values of 30-32C over southeastern AB. This would give Medicine Hat a good shot at hitting 40C on Friday, with 40C temperatures possible into extreme southwest SK such as Maple Creek and Val Marie areas as well.

    This heat comes on the 70th anniversary of Canada's hottest official temperature.. 45.0C reached at Yellow Grass and Midale, SK on July 5th 1937. Regina and Moose Jaw both hit all time record highs of 43C that day. Try living through that without air conditioning!

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  2. Fri Jul 6 - Temperatures soared into the upper 30s across southeast Alberta and southern SK today with a locality in Alberta hitting the 40 degree mark. Onefour Alberta, in the extreme southeast corner of Alberta near the Montana border, hit a sizzling 41C today. Highway sensors in the area indicated pavement temperatures aproaching 60C by mid afternoon. Temperatures across southern SK hit 38c in Val Marie, Moose Jaw, Maple Creek and Coronach with Regina hiting a record high of 37.2c.

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