With a just month to go until spring, Red Deerians can expect it to get a little warmer outside.
Weather will gradually warm this week and day-high temperatures will be around 0 C early next week, said Brian Proctor, Environment Canada meteorologist.
“Things will start to moderate … after a gradual warming trend over the next five to seven days,” he said.
Proctor said the current cold stretch will hopefully be this winter’s last.
“If we do get cold weather stretches in March, April or May they tend to be a little shorter lived and they moderate a little quicker,” he said.
Proctor said January and February have been especially cold this year.
February’s mean temperature in 2018 has been 18.3 C, while the average mean temperature for February in Red Deer is about -9 C.
In the 104 years of Environment Canada’s recorded temperature in the city, this has been the fourth coldest February so far.
“We’ve also seen some fairly significant windchill associated intermittently with that cold air too, so I think people are looking forward to the change,” said Proctor.
Spring weather in Western Canada is always interesting and tough to predict, he added.
“We’ll still get cold weather in much of March and early April.
“We often get our heaviest snowfalls in the March, April and early May timeframe. Even though we think it’s over, it still comes back to hit us with a vengeance sometimes,” said Proctor.
With the temperature warming up in the coming weeks, a big concern is snow on roads melting and freezing overnight, said Proctor.
“It’s going to be a bit of a problem for drivers to deal with, but it’ll moderate in the daytime making many people happier,” he said.
There is a chance of flurries Thursday, but it’s expected to be all sun afterwards.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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