The End Is Near - Extreme Weather Anomalies

Here, in the non-tropical Northern Hemisphere, we have come to divide the year into four seasons: the cold of winter, the warming and greening of spring, the warmth or heat of summer, and the cooling and leaf-changing of autumn. However, on freak occasions, weather does not behave in a manner according to its season. In this list, we will discuss some of the rare cases where the weather has taken an unseasonal turn or has acted otherwise unusually.

1992 Alberta Chinook

The Canadian Province of Alberta has a bout a warm air and weather, known as a chinook, once every several years. However, this was about the most notable and unique one to come to Alberta. On February 27, 1992, Southern Alberta was actually basking in warm, summer-like sunshine, with Calgary reaching a high of 22.6 degrees Celsius (72.7 degrees Fahrenheit).


2010 Russia Heat Wave


In the summer of 2010, Russia encountered scorching, unbearable heat that reached up to the high 40s in some regions. Many people, estimated at 15,000, but possibly more, died of heat stroke and forest fires. The period of hot weather continued through July and August.



2010 Ontario April Heat Wave
 Ontario was soaked in a wave of heat from the south and Ottawa was bombarded with two consecutive hot days. The mercury shot up to 28.2 degrees Celsius (82.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on April 2 and 28.5 degrees Celsius (83.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on April 3. Everyone was amazed the temperature could soar so high that time of year and the weatherman, when predicting the heat wave, had to announce, “This is no April Fool’s joke.”

1992 Summer Cold Snap


Now, we go from the extremely hot to the extremely cold. In the same year Calgary saw its 1992 February chinook, it saw some abnormal winter weather on the 23rd of August, where the temperature only reached 5.3 degrees Celsius (41.5 degrees Fahrenheit). In addition to the cold, there was a dusting of snow of 0.4 centimeters. Imagine going to the bus stop or supermarket wearing a winter coat in August. That’s a concept just too bizarre to imagine.



Fast Temperature Increase


How about a quick jump in the temperature? On January 22, 1943, Spearfish, South Dakota, USA, saw a leap in the temperature from -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) to +7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) in…get this…only 2 minutes!






Extreme January Cold
 Throughout January, 1950, the Western US and Canada quite literally froze! People from Washington State describe that month as “infamous”, and Vancouver, Canada, almost constantly remained below freezing! The monthly Vancouver high, following a mild November and average December, was -2.9 degrees Celsius, the coldest ever and Vancouver’s only year of the daily average high for January being below freezing. While the average high for Vancouver in January is 6.1 degrees Celsius, Calgary never made it above freezing at all that month, with an extreme high being -6.7 degrees Celsius on January 5, with 2 days having a high > -10 degrees Celsius, and an average monthly high of -20.4 degrees Celsius.

Extreme Cold Winter to Extreme Hot Summer
December 2008, brought much snow to Vancouver streets. Christmas was truly white, with knee-deep snow making walking difficult, and driving nearly impossible. The temperature steadily remained below freezing, with a low of -15.2 degrees Celsius being recorded on December 20, only 2.6 degrees Celsius above the record lowest temperature of -17.8 on January 14, 1950. July 2009, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. The temperature rarely reaches or exceeds 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in Vancouver. In fact, this happens about one day every 5 years. However, that Vancouver July saw 4 days where the temperature soared above 30 degrees. Two of these days broke the previous record of 33.3 degrees set on August 9, 1960, and the new record was set as 34.4 degrees on July 30, 2009. Talk about going from one extreme to the other.