As lows for the week continue to be into the minus-30s, Hatters can at least look forward to chinook weather arriving on the weekend, just in time for a comfortable Christmas.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
It will be a white Christmas in southern Alberta, though a Chinook is expected by the Holiday weekend to lift spirits and lift the region out of bone-chilling cold.
Temperatures at the Medicine Hat Airport fell to -34.7C at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, combined with light wind to produce a wind chill value of -47C.
That placed it as the coldest final official day of autumn in the city in at least 20 years.
It was also one of the busiest for snow removal crews and tow trucks.
“We’ve been busier than a cat on a hot tin roof,” said Willie Langille, of Willie’s Towing, who estimated in the afternoon Tuesday that his tow truck drivings were working away at a six-hour backlog of calls.
Those ran the gamut of cold-weather problems, but mainly freeze-ups and dead batteries.
“A major problem is that people aren’t plugging in their vehicles. You just can’t expect a vehicle to start in this weather if it is not plugged in.”
The extreme cold warning from Environment Canada was to continue over night on Dec. 21, which is the winter solstice.
Following the longest night of the year, from Thursday on the forecast high rises to sit above the freezing point on Christmas Eve on Saturday.
The City of Medicine Hat enacted its snow removal plan late Sunday night ahead of cold and snow to start the week.
Authorities are advising motorists to use extreme caution with travelling on highways as extreme cold warnings blankets much of Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.
Highways in the southeast Alberta region were mainly bare. Winter driving conditions were reported for the southwest Saskatchewan, with icy conditions in the south central region, according to that province’s Highways Department.
The Montana Department of Transportation reported scattered snow and ice around Havre.
The U.S. National Weather Service predicted light snow and dangerous cold in north central parts of the state this week.
In Saskatchewan, the low at Cypress Hills was -33C in the early morning hours on Dec. 20.
The low dipped to -37 in Oyen and Schuler, and the temperature dipped below -40C in the mountain park towns of Jasper and Banff.
The Alberta Electrical System Operator reported that Alberta’s power grid set an all-time record for demand at 5 p.m. on Dec. 19 at 12,187 megawatts. That mark is about 2 per cent more than the previous record set in January 2022.
No problems are reported at the City of Medicine Hat’s power plant.
According to the Environment Canada almanac, the recent high mark for snow on the ground in Medicine Hat for the week leading up to Christmas was 20 centimetres (eight inches) in 2008.
That year also featured the low temperature for Dec. 20 at -33.9C.
