Rainy Days Are Here Again!

[Nehkara]

Just took a look at the forecast for Calgary for this week:



Lovely eh?

[Old Yeller]

June is supposed to be the wettest month in Calgary.

June's got a lot of work to do because May sure gave it some competition.

[Ducay]

Looks like I'll be cleaning the gutters tonight instead of next weekend.....

[BlackArcher101]

FML. What's with the teasers of one warm day between crap weather?

[edn88]

At least its not snow?

It looks like I picked a good week to get out of town. Chetwynd is not balmy right now, but it is at least not raining. Hope the rest of the week is as nice.

[worth]

It would not be the oil show if it weren't for the monsoon rain.

[DownhillGoat]

So much for hiking mt baldy next weekend.

[stampsx2]

Isn't southern Alberta suppose to have an arid climate. A bit of a desert.

[flamingreen]

Spruce Meadows is next week, of course it's raining.

[HotHotHeat]

The rain is badly needed. The Bow is so low for this time of year...

[Coach]

wtf...it was supposed to be nice this weekend!

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Isn't southern Alberta suppose to have an arid climate. A bit of a desert.

Ever since our flooding in 2005 it has been very wet in the spring (May and June) except 2009. This is usually followed by a very hot and dry July.

Average Precipitation/Average Max Temp:

Avg May 2000-2004 = 36.68 mm / 15.22 C
Avg May 2005-2009 = 52.6 mm / 17.06 C

Avg June 2000-2004 = 98.56 mm / 19.48 C
Avg June 2005-2009 = 138.42 mm / 19.3 C (Record rainfall 247.6 mm in June 2005)

Avg July 2000-2004 = 51.32 mm / 24.72 C
Avg July 2005-2009 = 48.82 mm / 24.16 C (Record monthly average max temperature 26.4 C July 2007)

This represents a ~30% increase in spring precipitation in the last 5 years in comparison to the previous 5 years.

[stampsx2]

Average Precipitation for Vancouver (a city that's suppose to be known for rain):

Avg May 2000-2004 = 62.4 mm
Avg May 2005-2009 = 52.68 mm

Avg June 2000-2004 = 36.76 mm
Avg June 2005-2009 = 47.6 mm

Avg July 2000-2004 = 35.48 mm
Avg July 2005-2009 = 31.52 mm

So apparently on average we get more rain in May, June and July then Vancouver.

[chalms04]

I felt bad for the Palestinian protesters downtown today in the rain.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

The rain is badly needed. The Bow is so low for this time of year...

Would that be moreso because of the snowpack not metling due to the lower temperatures than preciptation?

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Would that be moreso because of the snowpack not metling due to the lower temperatures than preciptation?

Rain can't hurt.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Isn't southern Alberta suppose to have an arid climate. A bit of a desert.

I think that we still do. Spring, especially June, is kind of a monsoon month and is always pretty wet. By August all of the grass will be burnt and there will be water bans in effect.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Isn't southern Alberta suppose to have an arid climate. A bit of a desert.

We're at the high end of a cold semi-arid climate in Calgary. Average 17 - 20 inches of precip. per year. (1971-2000). Without looking it up, I'd guess since 2000 we've averaged more than that though. Trouble is it isn't ever spread out. Like Jimmy Stang said, we get the huge dumps of snow in the spring, along with the June monsoon. That's about our only guaranteed moisture. The rest is pretty much hit and miss thunderstorms, and spotty snow/rain showers. All in all, we live in a pretty dry place when 10 inches a year is considered true desert.

Makes me think of this good ol' Ian Tyson song.

[macker]

Didn't have rain in Vulcan for the Triathlon and the temperature was perfect (warmish/cool). If you didn't like it you could spend your day in the Arcade on main street...

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Rain can't hurt.

I guess you weren't in Calgary in the spring of '05.

Rain put a serious hurting on our asses!







I think BA is right, we haven't seen sustained temperatures high enough to be typical. The recent dip in flow certainly can't be attributed to a lack of moisture.

The spikes in this chart are due to periods of warm weather NOT rain.
http://environment.alberta.ca/apps/b...ionID=RBOWBANF