After what felt like weeks of mediocre summer weather, Calgarians will finally see the mercury climb this weekend.
“This summer has been very inconsistent so far in Calgary and throughout Alberta,” Global News weather anchor Jodi Hughes said. “But this weekend should bring a much-needed break to all of that active weather.”
WATCH: Hot weather is expected this weekend which is welcome news for many Calgarians. But as Christa Dao reports, fighting both flames and heat can take a toll on first responders.
The forecast calls for a high of 27 C on Friday, 26 C on Saturday and 22 C on Sunday – welcome news for thousands of people planning to visit Prince’s Island Park for the 2019 Calgary Folk Music Festival.
Even if you don’t have tickets to the event, the festival will have a free stage just outside the festival grounds this year with over 70 bands performing throughout the weekend.
WATCH: Kerry Clarke with the Calgary Folk Music Festival joins Leslie Horton to discuss the line-up and what is being done to celebrate the show’s 40th anniversary.
Warm weather to continue into next week
It’s not just this weekend that the weather will be warm, daytime highs are forecast to be above 20 C for a full week.
“This will be our longest stretch of weather in the 20s so far this year,” Hughes said. “The average high in Calgary this time of year is 23 C — with an average low of 10 C.”
“On July 23, we hit 30.4 C which marked the first 30-degree day we have had in 11 months,” she added. “At that point last year, Calgary had already had five days at or above 30 C.”
Over the weekend, Hughes said the central and southern parts of Alberta should see a lot of sunshine with daytime highs and overnight lows mostly above seasonal.
Calgary fire crews battle hot weather while dousing flames
Hot summer weather might be cause for celebration for Calgarians, but can add another degree of difficulty to emergency response calls.
Firefighters, for example, pull on pounds of protective gear before responding to calls.
Battalion Chief Bruce Barrs tells Global News they make efforts to rotate crews to help mitigate against any hot-weather concerns.
“On a day like this — when we’re dealing with hotter-than-normal or above-average temperatures — we’re aware of heat-related concerns,” Barrs said.
He said proper hydration is one of their main focuses when the mercury rises.
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