From a warm winter to a cold, wet spring and a dry summer, 2013 had a bit of every type of weather.
While the big event of the year was flooding throughout other parts of the province, Olds wasn't immune to the rains that came in May and June. About 120 millimetres were recorded in Olds in May, compared to a historical average of only 60 millimetres, said Dave Phillips, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. In June, normally the wettest month of the year, about 130 millimetres of rain fell, between 45 and 50 per cent more precipitation than normal.
“The ground was pretty primed there when the rains came in June and it set back agriculture a bit, and then fortunately you saw some really dry weather from (July and August) and that really saved the bacon,” he said.
February was warmer than normal, with an average temperature of -3.5 C compared to the historical normal of -7.8 C. That was offset by a cooler than normal March.
“The dead of winter wasn't so bad but the shoulder seasons were brutal,” Phillips said.
“The one element that we don't keep statistics of is the length of (winter in a general sense). That's what really drove people wild. Every time you looked out the window, you knew what season you were in. You just didn't talk to anybody from the Prairies because they were so miserable,” he added.
The Olds area had about 10 per cent more snow during the winter of 2012-13 than normal, with about 135 centimetres of the white stuff. Snow also extended into March and April, which made for a long stretch of wintry weather.
May was warmer than normal in 2013, with an average temperature of 12 C while the historical average is 9.4 C.
“That really turned things around because even though the flood (elsewhere in the province) was still to come, it really meant that the soil could at least warm up, you could melt whatever leftover snow there was, it got rid of the soil moisture to some degree, and it allowed you to at least accept the rains that came in May and in June,” Phillips said.
“When you look back at the year, there were some moments that weren't nice but then overall it could have been far worse,” he added.
Only one temperature record was set for Olds during the cold weather that set in during the last month-and-a-half. The daytime high on Dec. 6 only reached -26.1 C, a full 10 degrees colder than the normal for that day. The previous record low for that day, -25.6, was set in 1936 and tied in 1977.
While Phillips said that Dec. 6 was the only temperature record that was set this fall, the latter half of autumn has nonetheless been colder than in the past several years and that day's temperature was colder than the normal temperatures typically seen throughout winter in this area.
Phillips did not have statistics on how much snow has fallen specifically in Olds so far this season.
