Top 10 Extreme Weather Anomalies

Here, in the non-tropical Northern Hemisphere, we have come to divide the year into four seasons: the cold of winter, the warming and greening of spring, the warmth or heat of summer, and the cooling and leaf-changing of autumn. However, on freak occasions, weather does not behave in a manner according to its season. In this list, we will discuss some of the rare cases where the weather has taken an unseasonal turn or has acted otherwise unusually.

The Canadian Province of Alberta has a bout a warm air and weather, known as a chinook, once every several years. However, this was about the most notable and unique one to come to Alberta. On February 27, 1992, Southern Alberta was actually basking in warm, summer-like sunshine, with Calgary reaching a high of 22.6 degrees Celsius (72.7 degrees Fahrenheit). For comparison, the average high temperature for that date and location is 1.3 degrees Celsius (34.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and Calgary has been known to see occasional days in March where the high temperature does not exceed -20 degrees Celsius. In a typical year, Calgary does not see its first 20 Celsius day until sometime in April, some years even May, but this is the only time ever this Albertan city has seen one in February.

In the summer of 2010, Russia encountered scorching, unbearable heat that reached up to the high 40s in some regions. Many people, estimated at 15,000, but possibly more, died of heat stroke and forest fires. The period of hot weather continued through July and August.

In the City of Ottawa, Ontario, the capital city of Canada, when do you think would be the ideal time of year to get out your barbecue, put your shorts and T-shirt on, or flock down to the beach? Perhaps July or August, when the temperature typically hits 26 degrees Celsius, but definitely nowhere outside of June, September or maybe late May. But how about April? And to top that up, early April? Well, most years that would be out of the question, as the temperature in the first week of April typically reaches a lowly high of about 7 degrees Celsius. But if you came in 2010, it would be a totally different story. Ontario was soaked in a wave of heat from the south and Ottawa was bombarded with two consecutive hot days. The mercury shot up to 28.2 degrees Celsius (82.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on April 2 and 28.5 degrees Celsius (83.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on April 3. Everyone was amazed the temperature could soar so high that time of year and the weatherman, when predicting the heat wave, had to announce, “This is no April Fool’s joke.”

Now, we go from the extremely hot to the extremely cold. In the same year Calgary saw its 1992 February chinook, it saw some abnormal winter weather on the 23rd of August, where the temperature only reached 5.3 degrees Celsius (41.5 degrees Fahrenheit). In addition to the cold, there was a dusting of snow of 0.4 centimeters. Imagine going to the bus stop or supermarket wearing a winter coat in August. That’s a concept just too bizarre to imagine.

How about a quick jump in the temperature? On January 22, 1943, Spearfish, South Dakota, USA, saw a leap in the temperature from -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) to +7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) in…get this…only 2 minutes!