A cold weather system that painted Alberta red with extreme cold weather warnings this week is subsiding in the far south regions of the province.
The public alerts issued by Environment Canada were lifted in areas closest to the Montana Border at mid-day on Thursday.
Cypress Hills and Foremost, Lethbridge-Taber, Cardston and the Crowsnest Past emerged as daytime temperatures reached minus-22C. All of Saskatchewan was placed under a warning Wednesday, but that too was lifted.
Still in effect was a warning for Medicine Hat-Bow Island-Suffield, though that is expected to expire on Saturday. That day, the local high is predicted at minus-22C and the low at minus-29C.
The expected high on Sunday in minus-4C, then 5C on Monday.
Such warnings are issued when the federal agency forecasts a “multi-day episode of very cold wind chills.” The coldest wind chill values predicted locally were in the range of minus-45C.
Power use
Alberta electric system operators asked some large power users to shed load on Thursday as demand spiked in the morning hours, prompting a minor emergency alert at 8 a.m.
Power prices again spiked to the maximum $1,000 per megawatt hour in mid-morning as demand rose. The emergency status was downgraded in the early afternoon.
Earlier this week, AESO set emergency status at level 2 – one step short of instituting brown-outs – as demand set a new record while generation was hampered by coal-fired plants going offline and wind power stagnating.
