Alberta Storm Chasing

Well I have noticed I hadn't written in sometime here and that is due to the unexciting weather we have been having lately.  We have had some nice weather and last week we were in the low 20's C a few times. We've also had some thundershowers roll through giving a rumble of thunder or  two but nothing to exciting.  The grass is green and growing well, the buds on the trees are open and leafing out and I see some of the sunflowers that have fallen from the birdfeeder are sprouting and a few inches high.

Calgary hasn't been getting much for weather, but that isn't the case north of the city. A band of snow developed around the Red Deer area on Sunday night and stuck around most of Monday too. EC issued some snowfall warnings yesterday as reports came in of 20-40 cm in and around Red Deer. We didn't get much for flakes although a few times it looked as though there were small flakes melting on the windshield of the car. It was just more of a drizzly, dull day.

I don't see to much excitiment in the next week but the weekend might bring some more thunder to the area. The temperature is on its way up for the week so some heat should bring most of the leaves out by the weekend.

I do need it to dry up abit so I can get back to work. It's been a long winter and the spring hasn't been much better. I think we could all go for some consistent warmth and a few nasty thunder-bangers!!!!

Now that the snow of April has passed we have finally gotten into some warm weather. The days are getting longer and the temperature is moving ever so close to the 20 C range. With that, it has also brought some instablility to the region and thunderstorms have rolled throughout the province. Nothing that need a Watch or a Warning but some good rain with some hail mixed in. On Tuesday the 5th, we had some rain moved in from the north and you could even see some of the small hail mixed within. The EC lightning detector picked up some flashes with this storm but I saw nothing and heared nothing as it passed through. Most of the thunderstorm action seems to be keeping east and northeast of the city were dewpoints have been higher. Most days this week  in Calgary have low dewpoints and very high

based CB with a ton of virga. 

Today we have had rain for most of the morning which will help these leaves to bloom. The grass is green and I even mowed the lawn lastnight!  This afternoon will dring some more thunderstorms into the area and I see at the last look of the radar that there seems to be some firing up E/SE of Red Deer and are moving south. Tomorrow will bring some more storms in the afternoon as the disturbance moves east toward Saskatchewan.

No chance of chasing this week as the funds are getting thin. Next week if we get some storms I'll be making my way out to hunt!

Well last week brought a ton of moisture to Alberta. Calgary recieved the snowstorm early last week that dropped 7 cm and most of the province saw some type of precip. Cardston and the Pincher Creek area saw the most with some reports of 75 cm! This was all due to the low pressure system that has been creeping along the Alberta/Montana border for most of the weekend. I saw some convection on Saturday afternoon popping up NE of the city. As I approached the towers were bubbling up into the 10,000 ft range and we a nice surprise. They even dropped some popcorn hail for about 15 mins which you can see here at www.youtube.com/AssiniboineSky .

Looks like the winter weather will push out of the area later tomorrow and then we'll see some heating up for the end of the week, weekend and early next week. Looked at the 14 day Outlook and though it is rarely correct it shows a great warming pattern and above normal temperatures starting in the second week of May. This will be nice too see as thunderstorm season is about to start and the moisture and warm temperatures will sure help.

In other weather news, Canada has now seen its first tornado of the year!! A squall line pushed through Ontario on the weekend causing all sorts of damage and power outages through out Southern Ontario. The first tornado was a very weak EF-0 which touched down in Windsor, ON. The other unofficial tornado was a stronger EF-0 tornado just west of Ottawa were there was considerable damage to trees and homes in the area. There were also wind gusts of 115-130 km/hr wind gust at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

The warnings started to pop up early yesterday morning along the Foothills of Alberta and lasted up until the time of this blog entry. Calgary never entered the warning criteria but we sure had our share of wintery weather. Around 1:00 pm the flakes started to fly here in town and they didn't let up until early this morning (April23). After all was done I'd say about 5-7 cm of snow fell here in central Calgary while the real accumulation was in the Foothills to the west. Nordegg to Cardston were the hardest hit and most locations along the Rocky Mountains got anywhere from 10-25 cm of snow.

Also some wind was associated with the cold front as it past through and in the video about you can see some of the gust which were around the 40-45 km/hr range. In the wake of the cold front Alberta is left with some cold temperatures and today's high is only -2 C. That's 15 C lower than the average temperature for this time.

Over the next few days it will warm up but not before some more flurries on Saturday and temperatures in the low-high single digits. Warm air is expected again later this week and is on the rise for the next two weeks. Lets hope that this is the last of the wintery weather and we can finally get the thunderstorm season to start!

Well it looks like winter is coming back once again this week to most parts of the province.Tthe Foothills will be hardest hit again but most of the province will see some type of precipitation. Tomorrow as the low sinks to the south the precip will start as rain here in southern Alberta. That will be a nice as it should wash away some of the dust and dirt on the roads and parking lots in the area and give some much need moisture to the province. But at the same time it could freeze under the snow as the temperature is to dip under 0 C, and that surely will lead to some accidents on the roads here in Calgary. Models have been jumping all over the place with this system but it looks like we will get around 5-10 cm here in town. So far EC is calling for only 2 cm for Calgary but I really think there will be more. Looks as Bragg Creek areas and Rocky Mountain House/Nordegg will see the most snow were 30 cm is possible.

Was hoping that with the cold front pushing in that it would spark some convection but doesn't look like that is gonna happen. So we'll once again have to wait for our first storms of the year. On the plus side we'll see temperatures are 23 C today!!!

Also I have made a some changes to the website. i have taken the thunderstorm forecast off as it is alot of work to maintain and I'm finding that  my forecasting is not to great, which sound make this storm chasing season very interesting!