This July was drier and warmer than normal in the City of Red Deer and that trend is expected to continue throughout the rest of the summer.
This summer started off in El Nina conditions, said Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“That’s when you have colder than normal temperatures across the Eastern Pacific, which then changes the way the jet stream moves. That typically moves the jet stream farther across Western Canada, resulting in cooler and wetter conditions in the summertime,” Fougere explained.
“El Nina has weakened and we’ve moved away from those cooler and wetter conditions we had at the start of the summer. It was actually drier and warmer than normal for Red Deer (in July).”
Due to the long weekend, only preliminary data from the month of July was available on Monday. That preliminary data shows the mean temperature throughout the month was 17.3 C, which is higher than a normal mean temperature of 15.9 C.
For precipitation, the preliminary data indicted Red Deer experience 47.6 millimetres throughout the month – though that doesn’t include the final two days of the month. The normal precipitation through the month of July is 94.4 millimetres.
Climatologists will dig into the complete July stats this week to determine where July 2022 sits historically, when compared to the same month in the previous 109 years of recorded data.
The forecast for the August, September and October period indicates warmer-than-normal conditions will continue in the area, Fougere added.
“It’ll be likely be drier than normal as well,” he said.
A tornado watch was issued for Red Deer and Central Alberta on Monday. Additionally, on Sunday a tornado warning was in effect – a tornado touched down near Coronation.
READ MORE: Tornado touches down outside of Coronation
It’s “very usual” for the province to receive a high number of extreme weather watches and warnings throughout the summer, said Fougere.
“We live in a very active province for severe thunderstorm activity. Typically in a normal summer we see over 100 severe weather reports,” he said, adding the province’s storm prediction centre issues more than 1,500 watches and warnings throughout the province in any given summer.
July is the peak of the severe weather season, Fougere said, noting it’s when the province sees the most tornado activity.
“Typically the severe weather season continues into August and towards the end of August typically tends to trail off,” he said.
“We’re still in the heart of our severe weather season.
“When we get that heat and that moisture in the province, those are ripe conditions for severe thunderstorm activity. The Alberta foothills are the perfect place for those thunderstorms to generate and move to the east of the province.”
The Coronation tornado was the seventh confirmed tornado this season – the province typically averages 12-15 per year. There are still some possible tornadoes under investigation, Fougere noted.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter