Red Deer is shaking off the snow and cold of winter just in time for spring.
The temperature on Monday, the spring equinox, was forecast to climb to -1 C and is expected to jump to highs of about 9 C by mid-week.
“It’s probably going to be seasonal to maybe a little bit above seasonal. The normal day time high at this time of year is 4 C,” said Dan Kulak, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.
“In general I don’t think we’re looking at likelihood of any significant dumps of snow or a cold outbreak.”
Last year on March 20 the high was 10.4 C and and the low was -4.7 C, with no precipitation.
So far this month Red Deer has seen 24 cm of snow and the normal amount for the entire month is 20.4 cm based on data from 1981 to 2010. In March 2016, the city saw 16 cm for the entire month.
He said meteorologists consider March 1 to be the start of spring rather than the spring equinox because weather really does start to change into March.
Winter months are considered to be December, January and February and during those months the city’s snowfall was equal to 47.7 mm of water and the normal is 40.6 mm.
Red Deer’s average temperature for winter months was -10.6 C (daytime highs and overnight lows combined) and the normal is -10.2 C.
He said winter in Red Deer was basically a little bit chiller and a little bit wetter. It was very close to normal.
Environment Canada is forecasting wetter than normal conditions for spring in Central Alberta. How much wetter is difficult to say, Kulack said.
Average precipitation for March, April and May in Red Deer is a total of 109 mm.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com