Hatters seek to beat the heat at Echo Dale Regional Park on the first day it opened this season on July, 17. Environment Canada has issued a heat warning for the region and much of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan to end the week.--NEWS PHOTO
Right on cue, Medicine Hat is in a heat warning in the third week of July just as Medicine Hat Stampede Week would have kicked off.
Festivities are cancelled this year due to the pandemic, but Medicine Hat was the hotspot in Canada at 3 p.m. as the temperature sat at 32.8C.
A hot air mass that brought high temperatures into the region on Tuesday led to warnings from Environment Canada for the entire southeast region.
It is expected that temperatures as high as 33C throughout the area during the day will only fall to the high teens over night until more moderate temperatures are expected on Friday.
Irvine, Alta., also held the title as hotspot during the day, showing 28C at 10 a.m.
Medicine Hat’s forecast high for the day was 34C and the low 17C.
Heat warnings are issued when forecasts predict daytime highs reaching above 30C for several days and while overnight lows sit around the mid-to-high teens.
The warning stretched through a wide area of southern and eastern Alberta as well as Saskatchewan.
In Alberta the warning extended as far north as the Oyen-Coronation region, as well as Brooks, Strathmore-Vulcan, and portions of southwest Alberta.
Similar warnings were issued for western Saskatchewan, from the Battlefords area to the Montana border, and across the entire southwest and southeast quadrants.
