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February 2019 the coldest in 83 years: Environment Canada

Feb 26, 2019 | 4:02 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — February 2019 is on track to be the coldest February in Medicine Hat in 83 years.

Environment Canada says as of February 25, the average temperature recorded in Medicine Hat is minus 21.1 degrees Celsius. Typically, the average temperature in February is minus 8.2 degrees.

“February is typically the second coldest month of the year behind January, so it’s not uncommon to get cold air outbreaks in February, ”said Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “But this one has been particularly long lasting.”

Fougere says a polar cold front moved through the province at the start of February, and it has stayed present in the month, despite a few warmer days.

“The next couple of days, the temperature is going to warm a little bit, and then during the weekend, the cold air is going to come back in again,” he said. “We haven’t really had a good low pressure system to change the air mass we’re in, so we’ve been stuck under this cold mass almost the whole month of February.”

While it has been cold, if the trend continues, it will be only the third coldest February in Medicine Hat since records started being kept.

The coldest February was 1936, where the average temperature was minus 26.6 degrees Celsius, followed by February 1887, where minus 23.1 degrees Celsius was the average temperature.

Fougere adds relief is not expected to come right away in March.

“Unfortunately, there’s not a really big pattern shift that’s going to bring in a lot of warm temperatures,” he said. “It’s still looking right now like the first two weeks of March, will stay below normal. For context, the normal at this time of year (march) would be a high of plus one, and a low of minus 10, so still looking like the first two weeks of March will be below normal, and then hopefully by mid-March, we’ll hopefully be up to more normal temperatures.”