It’s been almost 2 years since we moved to the farm! Time flies, as always.
Here’s a cool online tool that shows the changing climate over time. They have covered all of Alberta!
http://albertaclimaterecords.com/
So, if we look at the square over our farm, here are the crazy results (since 1950):
- Average temperature has increased by 1.3C
- Average winter temperature has increased by 3.8C
- Number of frost days has INCREASED by 6.3 – now we have 223 frost days a year
- The frost free period has DECREASED by 15 days
- Very cold days has decreased by 11 days (days where it’s -10C or colder all day)
- Extremely Cold Days has decreased by 9 days (days where it’s -20C or colder all day)
- Growing season length has increased by 16 days (now 178 days)
- Snowfall has decreased 11% to 20% of total precipitation (ie more rain, less snow)
What we have noticed:
- The amount of rain we got from mid July until now has been extreme.
- We didn’t really get winter last year and had almost no snow.
- We get a lot of frost. A lot of FROST! (We got frost the last week of June and the second week of August)
- These records indicate no real change in precipitation (which is good news) but the 2016 data is not yet included..
So yes, for sure, according to the data, winters are getting MUCH warmer (and drier).