Red Deer and Central Alberta got an early taste of summer with record-breaking temperatures on Monday, and the heat will continue until about Saturday.
“We have a blocking pattern over the continent that has this upper ridge building up over Alberta and it’s going to lock into place for the rest of the week,” said Justin Shelley, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Red Deer hit 27.2 C to break the old record of 25.1 C set in 1980 on Monday.
Rocky Mountain House got even hotter at 28.1 C and to surpass the old record of 25.2 C set in 1980.
Lacombe reached 27.5 C to beat the old record of 26.7 C set in 1941.
Stettler hit 27.0 C to beat the old record of 24.5 C set in 1980.
Sundre saw 27.2 C to beat the old record of 23.5 C set in 1998.
Nordegg climbed to 24.2 C to beat the old record of 24.0 C set in 1998.
Coronation reached 25.8 C to beat the old record of 25.2 C set in 1987.
Three Hills hit 26.8 C to beat the old record of 26.1 C set in 1931.
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Shelley said normal temperatures for Central Alberta are between 15 to 17 C for this time of the year.
He said over the next couple of days records may not be broken in Red Deer, but it will be close. The weather system is pulling a lot of hot air up from the south.
“That’s why we’re seeing these temperatures well above normal for this time of year. It likely won’t be quite as warm on weekend and into next week.”
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April in Red Deer was slightly cooler than normal. The mean temperature was 3.6 C compared to the normal of 4.3 C.
The city only received 20 per cent of its normal precipitation for April. A total of 5.1 mm of precipitation fell last month compared to the normal average of 24.8 mm making it the 11th driest April for Red Deer in the last 106 years.
“It does look at some point over the weekend that things become a bit unsettled and there are indications of potentially some shower activity, thunderstorms.”
But the first part of May looks like it will continue to be dry, Shelley said.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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