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Snow in Canada??

by Peter Geiger | Friday, July 16th, 2010 | From: Farmers' Almanac Blog

Mother Nature sure has an interesting sense of humor. While people across North America were sweating it out this week in an ongoing heat wave, Marmot Basin, a ski resort in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, got about 7 inches of snow on Tuesday. I know things are colder above the 49th Parallel, but snow in July is pretty extreme, even in the Canadian Rockies!

Our very own Sandi Duncan, Philom., was interviewed about the snow by Snow Seekers, a Canadian Ski website. You can read that article here.

That same day, Death Valley, Calif., saw scorching 116° temperatures, while northern Idaho dipped below freezing. It’s certainly been an interesting week in weather here in North America. While snow during the summer isn’t exactly commonplace, it’s not as rare as you might think. There is even some folklore that an almanac accurately predicted a mid-July snowstorm in 1816, during the infamous “Year Without a Summer.”

As to whether or not this mid-summer snow is an indication of things to come, you’ll have to wait and see what the 2011 Farmers’ Almanac has to say!

2 comments

1 kelly { 07.21.10 at 12:05 am }

FYI- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, a city in the prairies, did not get any snow in July 2010! Check out the Weather Network for correct information (at 10:00 pm July 20th, the temperature here is 20 C (66 F). Marmott Basin is 362 km (226 miles) west of Edmonton, and in the mountains, which is about a four hour drive from the city. This resident of Edmonton finds your post more humorous than Mother Nature.

As for calling this the “Year Without a Summer,” that’s what I’ve been saying all month long – we have hardly had any sunny days. The temperature in Edmonton is fairly warm for us; seasonably average, but cloudy and rainy weather prevail. We are known as “Sunny Alberta” but this certainly has not been the case this summer.

Kelly

2 Derek { 07.16.10 at 5:29 pm }

Just the thought of cold again puts a smile on my face!!!! sooooo hot in the kitchen everyday! yes, I’m a chef.

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