Despite a week that included severe thunderstorms for many parts of Edmonton, officials with Northlands aren’t worried about K-Days attendance numbers taking a dive.
A torrential downpour on Wednesday created a slew of challenges for people looking to get around the city. Some areas saw more than 50 millimetres of precipitation fall, but that was far from the case with Northlands.
READ MORE: Edmonton streets flooded as city battered by rain during thunderstorm
Home to summertime staple K-Days, the area saw roughly one millimetre of rain. Still, rides were brought to a halt for an hour, partly due to lightning strikes.
“We have various protocols that we enact,” Lori Cote, public relations manager at Northlands, said. “We move from watch to a warning and when it was a warning, we asked everybody to move inside.”
The disparity in rainfall totals isn’t out of the ordinary, according to Jesse Beyer, chief meteorologist for Global Edmonton.
“You have to think about the spatial area of the city of Edmonton and how big an actual thunderstorm is,” he said.
“You can have showers going 50 millimetres an hour. If it only lasts half an hour, probably close to around 25 millimetres. If you were outside of that area – even though you’re within city limits – you can see next to nothing.”
Last year, K-Days saw its highest number of fair goers in more than a decade. Officials said 785, 290 people went through the gates in 2015, up nearly 45,000 people from the year before.
READ MORE: K-Days 2015 attendance highest in 10 years
An average of 70,000 to 80,000 people attend K-Days each day. The fair wraps up Sunday evening, but there are still plenty of things to do over the long weekend.
That includes the Laugh Lounge, an onsite comedy club hosting comedic performers from across the country.
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