A warm start to spring this year resulted in some very early dates for the last spring frost, and a warm first half of fall made for some late first fall frosts. This resulted in a remarkably long frost-free season. While I don’t have all the data for the longest frost-free seasons, the 156 days […] Read more
Tag Archives Daniel Bezte — page 10
Taking a deep dive into snowfall events
There are different ways to measure how much snow falls, whether it be the amount that falls in one day or one 24-hour period. We can also measure snowfall a third way — by looking at what I call a snow event, when we record snowfall amounts on two or more consecutive days. This can […] Read more
Determining when winter starts on the Prairies
How do you determine when winter begins? Should it be the first significant snowfall? How about when the high temperature consistently stays below 0 C? Should we use the astronomical date of Dec. 21, or stick to the meteorological date of Dec. 1? Most people on the Prairies would probably agree that winter doesn’t really […] Read more
Mother Nature can put on dazzling light shows
Someone special asked if I could talk about rainbows and other optical weather-related phenomena, which are some of the most captivating displays in nature. These events are created by the interaction of sunlight with water droplets, ice crystals and atmospheric particles. Of all the different atmospheric optical phenomena, rainbows are perhaps the most well-known. They […] Read more
Apps can make weather watching easier
Here’s a couple of useful weather apps to consider. The first one is Zoom Earth. It is free and can be installed as an app or seen on their website. It gives worldwide satellite imagery and you can easily zoom in and out. It will also show the track of tropical storms. Along with satellite […] Read more
When to expect early-spring, late-fall frosts
It’s time to talk about fall frost and the length of this year’s frost-free season. Data for major centres shows a number of locations came close to frost on Sept. 12, and I found 10 to 15 locations did report a light frost on that morning, including my own weather station. The first question I […] Read more
El Nino and chaos theory factor into weather
El Nino can affect the kind of weather we might expect this winter. The formation and movement of one system can impact how other systems behave around the world. This is called teleconnection, which refers to the long-distance relationships or connections between climate events that occur in different parts of the world. This fundamental concept […] Read more
Understanding El Niño and La Niña
What is El Niño, and why can it have such a profound impact on our weather? Simply put, El Niño is a change in ocean surface temperatures across the tropical and subtropical Pacific Ocean. This creates a change in the weather patterns. The Pacific Ocean covers half of our planet, so any large-scale change is […] Read more
Relative humidity, dew point and rainfall explained
Two summer weather events, rainfall and humidity, each have associated advisories and warnings. Humidity, by its simplest definition, is the amount of water vapour in the air. The warmer the air, the greater the distance between air molecules and the greater the holding capacity for water vapour. Warm air can hold much more water than […] Read more
Straight-line winds are thunderstorm threat
Sometimes these winds are so strong and devastating that their damage is attributed to a tornado, and the only way to determine the true cause is to look at the pattern of damage.
