Calgary Tops for Weather Comfort

[GreenLantern]

As a huge fan of ice fishing I prefer a prairie winter to a rainy one..

[Boblobla]

I don't understand why people see comfortable weather and say there are places warmer than Calgary in the summer. I hate the heat. I like the winter and I know I am not alone in that. I don't want to be uncomfortable outside, jeans and a t-shirt is great for me. I can always put a sweater on.

I love the weather in Calgary. We only have 1 or 2 weeks where it gets obscenely cold, we don't get much snow but we are close to the mountains and they get tons.

[zukes]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

You do know we have exceptions and courses can be open at extreme times too we get them all the time too.
I hardly doubt that you are golfing the day after 15mm of rain and 10cm of snow coming on the weekend and you wont be anytime soon.
Like I said these are extremes you are pointing out. We could have golfed most of Dec in 2011 too.

New years day 2011/2012 outlook


I would sacrifice 5 degrees in Nov than have to get on a course before 9 am for 3 months in the summer just to beat the humidity

Didn't say I would be golfing, but there will be some. Likely not in London, but when you get south of here, even 15 minutes, they get about half the snow we do being in a snow belt and there are some courses that dry quickly.

Like I said above, the length of the warmth in March was an anonoly, but we get enough warm weather almost every year that the courses are open mid March. I recall only one year where it took until April, granted I have only been golfing about 10 years. None of the couses close until we get significant snow and cold for a few days.

We have had the odd snow storm in mid October, just a couple years ago we got 2 feet mid October and the weight of the snow with all of the leaves still on the trees broke branches off onto houses (incidentally good for me at work), but by Halloween it was 17 degrees again. It was a dry summer that year, so golf was actually better after the snow melted than it had been all fall.

Anyway, I am sure some people like the weather in Calgary and great for them, to each their own. I have stated that I woudl rather live somewhere where I'd have to travel to see snow, but I want to live in Canada, so I have to deal with it. I personally like the super hot and sticky summers we get here, and the mostly mild winters, some may enjoy a more comfortable summer and cold winters. (Edit: as noted by the two posters above)

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

You do know we have exceptions and courses can be open at extreme times too we get them all the time too.
I hardly doubt that you are golfing the day after 15mm of rain and 10cm of snow coming on the weekend and you wont be anytime soon.
Like I said these are extremes you are pointing out. We could have golfed most of Dec in 2011 too.

New years day 2011/2012 outlook


I would sacrifice 5 degrees in Nov than have to get on a course before 9 am for 3 months in the summer just to beat the humidity

And being able to see the ball after 8:30pm.....

[polak]

Originally Posted by evman150

It does rain a lot in Vancouver, but in those three months it's still less than Calgary.

By the way, Vancouver's climate blows too. Rainy all year. Oh yay.

Victoria gets more then twice the average total percipitation than Calgary.

Victoria annual average percipitation (mm): 883
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/statistics/cl1018620

Calgary annual average percipitation (mm): 412
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...31093/caab0049

and Vancouver blows both away with 1588 mm.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...08446/cabc0308

Also, Calgary experiences a lot of "flash" rainstorms where it will rain more in an hour then it will all day for Victoria and then it'll clear up and be a perfect day. This is why we can have a lot of rain and snow but still be the sunniest city in Canada.

There's only a handful of days (usually a couple weeks in june) where it's miserable rain and overcast all day.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by evman150

It does rain a lot in Vancouver, but in those three months it's still less than Calgary.

By the way, Vancouver's climate blows too. Rainy all year. Oh yay.

Where are you getting these stats from? Calgary is hardly a tropical rain forest in July/August no matter how much rain you saw in those 10 days 10 years ago.

No doubt Victoria does have a better climate than calgary. Thats why it's dubbed the homeless people capital of Canada. hehe

[zukes]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

And being able to see the ball after 8:30pm.....

Yes, I do miss the long summer days. I absolutely love golfing in late May - mid July when the sun stays up until about 9:00 here. If I recall, it is still light out unil around 11:00? I know I was in Thunder Bay around this time this year for work. I hadn't been even that far north in 20 years and I was shocked at how long the sun was out, and that's not even as far north as Calgary. I took that for granted while I lived in Calgary for sure.

Of course, I left here without a jacket and it was still getting down to the low single digits at night, haha, I am dumb.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by troutman

Wouldn't the Okanagan beat Calgary in all those categories?

Ours is much nicer, though it is cloudy most of the winter

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by polak

Victoria gets more then twice the average total percipitation than Calgary.

Victoria annual average percipitation (mm): 883
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/statistics/cl1018620

Calgary annual average percipitation (mm): 412
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...31093/caab0049

and Vancouver blows both away with 1588 mm.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...08446/cabc0308

Also, Calgary experiences a lot of "flash" rainstorms where it will rain more in an hour then it will all day for Victoria and then it'll clear up and be a perfect day. This is why we can have a lot of rain and snow but still be the sunniest city in Canada.

There's only a handful of days (usually a couple weeks in june) where it's miserable rain and overcast all day.

Those Victoria numbers are based off the airport which isn't really near the city. The actual city gets about 600mm of precipitition and 2200 hours of sunshine. Their summers also blow Calgary's out of the water.

[polak]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Those Victoria numbers are based off the airport which isn't really near the city. The actual city gets about 600mm of precipitition and 2200 hours of sunshine. Their summers also blow Calgary's out of the water.

You're telling me a 20 minute drive is a enough distance to produce 200 less mm of percipitation? You can't even cross half of Calgary in 20 minutes.

And Calgary is warmer on average during the summer...

Calgary: May: 16.4 - June: 20.2 - July: 22.9 - August: 22.5 - Sept: 17.6
Victoria: May: 16 - June: 17.3 - July: 18.9 - August: 17.9 - Sept: 18
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...31093/caab0049
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...18611/cabc0313

[Coach]

Doesn't really surprise me. The summers are generally very nice, and the falls of the last few years have actually been great (September-November). As for the winters, yeah it can get pretty cold sometimes, but its usually pretty mild. And there are people (like me) that would prefer the cold weather to desert heat. I would think most people in the area would be accustomed to it and enjoy the activities that winter brings (skiing, skating, shinny, etc..)

[Coach]

Originally Posted by polak

You're telling me a 20 minute drive is a enough distance to produce 200 less mm of percipitation? You can't even cross half of Calgary in 20 minutes.

And Calgary is warmer on average during the summer...

Calgary: May: 16.4 - June: 20.2 - July: 22.9 - August: 22.5 - Sept: 17.6
Victoria: May: 16 - June: 17.3 - July: 18.9 - August: 17.9 - Sept: 18
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...31093/caab0049
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...18611/cabc0313

Yeah it does make quite a bit of difference. I lived there while I went to school and yeah it definitely gets more rain, but it doesn't even touch Vancouver in that regard and most rain is light drizzle. I was wearing shorts until I came home in December for xmas.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

I spent a winter once in Kelowna. Constantly cloudy, wet, gloomy and mostly miserable.

Cowperson

I lived in Penticton for three years, and I know what you mean. It does get overcast in the winter in the valley. You just had to drive up to the ski areas, to get above the clouds and see the sun. I don't know how many overcast days it has in the winter compared to Calgary. It rarely got very cold - it is a rare event for the lake to freeze at all.

I never found it too uncomfortably hot there in the summer. Everyone has A/C, and the lake must provide some cooling (direct or indirect). It is not humid at all. There were forest fires too often. It is nice to sit outside in the evening (something you can't really do in Calgary without sweaters or patio heaters).

I loved the early spring and long fall. For me, it was a great climate. Anywhere grapes are grown is where I like to be.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

There's more to Alberta than Calgary. Southern AB is actually quite nice in the winter. Lethbridge is pretty much a permanent chinook for instance.

But just stupid windy. When I moved there, I was wondering why their hockey team was called the "Hurricanes". By January, the mystery was over.

Weather is one of those "different strokes for different folks" things. I lived all over this country, and I would take take the summer scorchers and wet, but fairly mild winters of Southern Ontario before I ever went back to -30C again. I could do it if the right situation came up, but it would take more incentives.

[Flabbibulin]

I have to agree with the Okanagan valley suggestion. Is 30-33 degrees in the summer really that hot?

[Coach]

People talk about Calgary like it is consistently -30 throughout the winter. When it reality the amount of days it gets that cold probably totals 2 weeks.

[evman150]

Originally Posted by polak

You're telling me a 20 minute drive is a enough distance to produce 200 less mm of percipitation? You can't even cross half of Calgary in 20 minutes.

And Calgary is warmer on average during the summer...

Calgary: May: 16.4 - June: 20.2 - July: 22.9 - August: 22.5 - Sept: 17.6
Victoria: May: 16 - June: 17.3 - July: 18.9 - August: 17.9 - Sept: 18
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...31093/caab0049
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/sta...18611/cabc0313

Yeah, it's a big difference. 30 km makes the rain go from 583 in Victoria to 850+ at the airport. Even more striking, 80 km away in Port Renfrew they receive over 3,600 mm of rain. This area is full of microclimates. Victoria proper (well, the weather station is actually in Oak Bay, but close enough) is fortunately the best microclimate of them all.

By the way, those environment canada stats you posted are weird. They don't even have stats for April. Going by the ones on wikipedia, which are somehow also given by environment canada, the temps for Victoria are: May 15.9 June 17.9 July 19.8 Aug 20.1 Sept 18.5.

August is always the hottest month of the year, which makes me doubt the weird numbers you posted. Also, all the records are from 73-75, and trust me the record high here is not 27 (and it didn't come in May hahaha). More like 36, and 30 degree days happen a few times a summer.

[polak]

Hey, I'm just going off the stats on the site.

What kind of rink a dink operation are the meteorologists in Victoria running anyways?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by MattyC

People talk about Calgary like it is consistently -30 throughout the winter. When it reality the amount of days it gets that cold probably totals 2 weeks.

True, it's not like it's Winnipeg. When I lived there, there were something like 21 days in a row one winter where it hit -25C. I grew up in it and won't go back to that.

I don't think it has even hit -10C year this winter where I am, and it's been consistently above zero. The potential is here for -20C though, so I shouldn't brag that much.

[Bertuzzied]

After weather and all, Calgary is a way better city in Victoria. Was there for 3 days a couple years ago and couldn't wait to ferry my ass out of there and into Vancouver! haha