Calgary has been experiencing unusually warm weather this past week. Over the weekend, at least 13 locations unoffically broke records with high temperatures in the mid-teens throughout southern Alberta. Calgary broke a 127-year-old record Saturday with a high of 15.4 C.
While double-digit highs are very unusual for December (the average high temperature for Calgary is -1 C) this warm weather is even more impressive compared to the same week last year.
READ MORE: It has not been this cold in Calgary in almost 1,000 days
Dec. 4 to Dec. 17, 2016 brought a stretch of unseasonably cold weather, with some days not even making it above -20 C. Dec. 9, 2016 was almost 36 C colder than the same day a year later.
When you compare the high and low temperatures from Dec. 8, 2016 to Dec. 8, 2017 there was a difference of 41.9 C.
The last month of 2016 also brought more snow than the typical December. According the Environment Canada’s Canada Climate Normals, Calgary expects about 15 centimetres of snow over eight days in December, but last year it snowed 14 days for a total of 26.1 centimetres.
As of Dec. 11, 2017, Calgary has not had any snow and the temperature has been above 0 C every day but one.
Last year did bring an official white Christmas for the city of Calgary. Environment Canada defines a white Christmas as the presence of two or more centimetres of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. EST. Dec. 25.
It also went down in history as a “Perfect Christmas,” with two or more centimetres on the ground and snow in the air sometime on Christmas Day.
Christmas came early for some Calgary golf lovers.
“I’ve never golfed in December,” golfer Ralph Marshall said. “It’s the 12 days of Christmas.”
“Itching to go boast to my friends back East and say, ‘Hey I’m on the golf course,’” Bobby Cliffe said.
Golfer Mihwa Cliffe wants the best of both worlds.
It’s also unusual for Fox Hollow to re-open — a course that’s last to close and first to open on the “normal” golf calendar.
“We have 80 to 100 players a day out here and everybody’s coming out with Santa hats on, shorts and sandals,” Greg Griffith, Fox Hollow’s head golf professional said. “It’s a good little run for us.”
This time last year, the Calgary Zoo had to cancel Zoo Lights because it was so cold. This year, attendance is breaking records.
“Just on Saturday alone in the evening we had a 10,000-person day,” Trish Exton-Parder with the Zoo said.
Global Calgary Meteorologist Jordan Witzel said there’s basically a 50/50 chance that Calgary will have a brown Christmas.
“This week, we are about 20 degrees warmer than we were last year. There is a 55 to 57 per cent chance here in Calgary that we would have a white Christmas,” Witzel said. “There is an indication those few days leading up to Christmas — the 22, 23, 24 — that we might finally get a significant snowfall.”
A “perfect” Christmas, according to Environment Canada, is two centimetres of snow on the ground with flakes falling.
The forecast shows temperatures are expected to remain well above where they should be for the next week, with overnight lows expected to be as warm as average daytime highs.
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