Alberta Climate Records

[Blaithin]

I was just browsing some rainfall data this morning.

AFAWK all these locations are at the towns airports. They shouldn’t be very far away from each other to explain some freak thunderstorm (because there was lots of those this year…) causing the differences. Also it’s always the EC sites that seem to be far and away drier than the AFSC ones over the summer.



Also had an independent comparison with an AFSC station and the farms rain gauge, less than a quarter mile away. 4.25” difference. Absolutely no way a storm hit the AFSC site and didn’t touch the farm. So….

How does one decide which data is correct?

[furrowtickler]

So have the growing season actually lengthened 2 months in the past few years ???
You guys can’t be serious.........

[Hamloc]

I generally find it a waste of time to debate Chuck2 but I appreciate the energy of various posters who continue to do so. I think what astonishes me is the difference between what our political leaders tell us is happening and consequently what we must do and how different that is when compared to what is happening in the rest of the world. I am thankful for media like Reuters which publishes more honest articles than can be found on sites like the CBC. I read this article on Reuters tonight: “COP26 aims to banish coal. Asia is building hundreds of power plants to burn it.” Countries like Japan, China and India while no doubt are installing renewable generation they are also building many new coal fired power plants. The numbers in the article truly dwarf any changes that can be made by Canada. Trudeau will tax us into submission while Asia continues to burn coal for decades to come! Canadians really need to wake up!

[furrowtickler]

I generally find it a waste of time to debate Chuck2 but I appreciate the energy of various posters who continue to do so. I think what astonishes me is the difference between what our political leaders tell us is happening and consequently what we must do and how different that is when compared to what is happening in the rest of the world. I am thankful for media like Reuters which publishes more honest articles than can be found on sites like the CBC. I read this article on Reuters tonight: “COP26 aims to banish coal. Asia is building hundreds of power plants to burn it.” Countries like Japan, China and India while no doubt are installing renewable generation they are also building many new coal fired power plants. The numbers in the article truly dwarf any changes that can be made by Canada. Trudeau will tax us into submission while Asia continues to burn coal for decades to come! Canadians really need to wake up!

Call them out .... period.
Other than this year , they are 100% wrong in a huge area here the past 5 years. It’s actually laughable

Maybe the Alberta boarder is the climate line ...LOL .
The facts here on the ground in a huge area are the exact opposite of chucks original post

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Question for all you guys in Alberta , has your growing season been getting longer by 2-5 weeks per years per what was stated in chucky’s article ? Seriously?
So the growing season in Alberta has be getting longer by a month to 2 months every two years ?
Kinda sounds like that rush of news articles from around the world say that every country was warming at twice the rate as every other country ... lol

There are farmers on here from far southern Alberta to the far north , west and east . A real world snap shot of the past 10 years will be interesting.
Remember, frost free days during the growing season are a huge factor . Plants don’t grow very well below zero. How was the fall frost damage the previous few years in Alberta ? Certainly was a huge factor in this area . This is the first year in at least 5 where corn cobs made almost full maturity. Maybe in Alberta that was not the case with your growing seasons being almost 2 months longer now ?

Our last frost in this area this year was June 20th

I just checked the Lacombe data I referenced in another post. Since 1905, the growing season has increased by 36 days. With spring frost dates getting earler, and fall frost dates getting later. By eyeball, it appears that most of the gains were in the period prior to 1950. In fact, if you started the graph at about 1965, instead of 1905, it appears that it would be flat on both spring and fall, to possibly slightly declining.

According to the same data set, This is entirely a function of higher night time temperatures. During the entire period, nighttime lows have increased, while daytime highs have decreased, and the extreme highs have declined very noticable, especially since the 1930's.

I double checked Chucks map for my own area. Supposedly we have gained 10 days of growing season since 1951. I wasn't actually around then, so I can't verify. But the old timers talk about some nasty growing seasons around that time, after a long period of benevolent weather throughout the earlier part of the century. As I stated above, by pretending that the 30's don't exist, and starting in the cooling phase, the picture is skewed to show warming.

Definitely in a downtrend in recent years, this year being the exception.


If I cherry pick 1986 as a start date, it appears that our growing season length is in a downtrend ever since.


Hot days haven't increased at all according to the Alberta Climate Records site.

And as for Chuck's concern that Les Henry is only looking at 2 locations. I suggest Chuck look at the official records available on EC's website. When I have tried to compile the info myself, I find that there are gaps in EVERY station record, days, weeks, months and years at a time. And when I try to infill the gaps with nearby stations, I sometimes have to try 5 or more before finding one that isn't also missing the same time period. Which means that the maps on the website in question are just as accurate as the data they are based on. Or in other words, there is more guessing and infilling than actual data. By far. At least the data Les Henry used is complete and not man made.

I've met Les, and I would pay to see him debate Chuck on climate, or any other topic for that matter...

[TASFarms]

Wide spread Frost this year on June 21st. Isn’t that in the middle of the growing season?

[chuckChuck]

As I said this is an area where the experts on climate science have to be listened to. They have access to large amounts of data and no doubt a better understanding of all the complex analysis required to look at climate change over long periods of time. They also have to defend their published research through peer review.

I would like to see Les Henry's conclusions reviewed by a climate scientist. Because without peer review we have no way to know if Henry's assumptions and conclusions would stand.

For one thing you need the data from many many locations not just 2 hand picked ones. And you also need more than just precipitation and temperature charted on an annual basis.

[Guest]

what is your opinion on a cement plant burning plastic jugs for heat ?
way better than NG ? right?

[shtferbrains]

Keep digging Chuck.
When you get the hole deep enough someone from here will volunteer to fill it in if you wait there.

[GALAXIE500]

South and east of Lethbridge the climate trend indicates increased
annual potential evapotranspiration of 75 - 100mm (3-4) inches
between 1951 and 2017.

That's a very large change over time that means much less moisture for forages and crops.

I lived in Lethbridge from 1988-1990 , while going to college. Since that time , the amount of development , IE: big box stores , housing , restaurants , etc. on that part of the city has been immense. The population at that time was 56,000 (guessing a bit) , now it is over 100,000.

All that pavement and development makes heat , but is it mentioned in these "so called " climate trend reports ?

There was nothing but farmland and a few people living south of Lethbridge College in 1988. She's all covered up by urban sprawl now.

[furrowtickler]

Yet another prime example this morning, the entire surrounding area was 4-5 deg c colder than the micro climate at the airport. Happens every single calm cold morning. So what is the real temp that does not get recorded? You add that up over the years in many many locations and results would be much different.

[blackpowder]

what is your opinion on a cement plant burning plastic jugs for heat ?
way better than NG ? right?

I believe our climate minister has said it's not about cement plants it's about Alberta's oil. But don't worry our PM said we need to be "brought along"

In other news, Xi Jinping sends only a written statement to Cop 26. Bahaha.

[chuckChuck]

I lived in Lethbridge from 1988-1990 , while going to college. Since that time , the amount of development , IE: big box stores , housing , restaurants , etc. on that part of the city has been immense. The population at that time was 56,000 (guessing a bit) , now it is over 100,000.

All that pavement and development makes heat , but is it mentioned in these "so called " climate trend reports ?

There was nothing but farmland and a few people living south of Lethbridge College in 1988. She's all covered up by urban sprawl now.

Take a look at the map and you will see that every county can be looked at. So that includes the majority of non urban and largely rural communities where urban development would have almost no impact. The ones I referred to were the general area south and east of Lethbridge and no where near the city.

[helmsdale]

If you hacked these graphs off at 2016, i suppose you could extrapolate a trend line that said frost free days were increasing. The last 5 or 6 years sure bent that line down though.

[helmsdale]

This site has been unimpacted by "urban heat island effect", but I suppose one could still argue that the fact it's surrounded by cropland, which would alter the "natural state".

But these graphs show perhaps a slight increase of yearly mean temp, but not necessarily much in the way of an increase for growing season mean temp, or growing degree days.