According to the list 101 Interesting Facts About Canada, Calgary chinooks can raise the temperature by 10 degrees in minutes. What is a chinook you ask?
According to Wikipedia, Chinooks are most prevalent over southern Alberta in Canada, especially in a belt from Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass through Lethbridge, which get 30ā35 Chinook days per year, on average. Chinooks become less frequent further south in the United States, and are not as common north of Red Deer, but they can and do occur annually as far north as High Level in northwestern Alberta and Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia, and as far south as Las Vegas, Nevada, and occasionally to Carlsbad, in eastern New Mexico.
In southwestern Alberta, Chinook winds can gust in excess of hurricane force 120 km/h (75 mph). On 19āNovember 1962, an especially powerful Chinook in Lethbridge gusted to 171 km/h (106 mph).
In Pincher Creek, the temperature rose by 25.5 Ā°C (45.9 Ā°F), from ā23.2 to 2.2 Ā°C (ā9.8 to 36.0 Ā°F), in one hour on January 6, 1966. Trains have been known to be derailed by Chinook winds. During the winter, driving can be treacherous, as the wind blows snow across roadways, sometimes causing roads to vanish and snowdrifts to pile up higher than a metre. Empty semitrailer trucks driving along Highway 3 and other routes in southern Alberta have been blown over by the high gusts of wind caused by Chinooks.
Calgary, Alberta also gets many Chinooks ā the Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies west of the city acts as a natural wind tunnel, funneling the chinook winds.
On 27 February 1992, Claresholm, Alberta, a small city just south of Calgary, recorded a temperature of 24 Ā°C (75 Ā°F)[8]; again, the next day 21 Ā°C (70 Ā°F) was recorded.[8] These are some of Canada's highest February temperatures.
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