It will be tough to convince Calgarians of this, but this past summer made the Top 20 list for warmest.
Environment Canada has been keeping weather records since 1881, covering everything from temperature to precipitation. Even though Calgary made history with regards to rain, (more on that in a moment), the shocking statistic to come out of 2016 is that this summer’s weather was warmer than 85 per cent of summers since 1881.
Daytime high and low temperatures are often referred to in terms of a mean number, which is an average of maximum and minimum temperatures at a location for a specified period of time. The 30-year data for Calgary for June, July and August shows an average mean temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius. Summer 2016 produced an average mean temperature for those three months of 16.1°C.
In simple terms, this summer was Calgary’s 20th warmest out of 135 years.
THE HEART OF THE HEAT
The historical heat was not due to a spike in significantly warm days. This summer was a story of “slow and steady wins the race.”
There was only one day in June, July and August over 30 degrees Celsius. Normally Calgary will see around four 30°C days in a summer.
The temperature hit at least 25 degrees Celsius, 21 days this summer, but where Calgary made headway was in the temperature zone below that.
Usually Calgary will have about 60 days with a daytime high of at least 20 degrees, this summer there were 70 days above 20°C.
HISTORICALLY WET
All summer Calgarians have been lamenting about how wet it has been, and for good reason. There was at least some amount of precipitation in Calgary 62 per cent of days in June, July and August.
July saw so much rain that it is in the books as the second wettest in history.
READ MORE: Calgary has already exceeded July average rainfall totals
Over 206 mm of rain fell in July, or three times the monthly average. The three-month total for the summer was 341.5 mm, which is 158 percent of the normal rainfall total.
According to Environment Canada meteorologist Kirk Torneby, only nine summers in Calgary have had more rain than this year.
Summer 2016 was the 10th wettest on record in Calgary.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Not only was there a lot of rain, it seemed to always happen at the most inconvenient moments.
There was only one totally dry weekend in the month of June, rain every weekend in July, and only one rain-free weekend in August.
READ MORE: This was hottest, driest weekend of summer in Calgary
So far September is off to a good start, exceeding the average high for the first day.
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Editor’s note: For the puposes of this article summer is referring to the colloquial season of June, July and August.
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