Banff’s hot weather on Monday (June 8) broke a temperature record.
Banff was one of eight jurisdictions to break records on Monday, with the mercury soaring to 27.1 C. The old record for June 8 was 25.6 C set in 1912. Banff’s records date back to 1893.
“It was hot,” said Bill McMurtry, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “There were lots of people on decks, lots of people outside enjoying the warm weather.”
In Calgary, the mercury reached 31.9 degrees Celsius on Monday, breaking the old record temperature of 31.1 set more than 60 years ago in 1948.
Other records were set in Drumheller (34.0 C), Claresholm (29.8 C), Vauxhall (33.8 C), Pincher Creek (30 C) and Lethbridge (33.4 C).
Waterton Lakes National Park also smashed its June 8 record temperature, reaching 30 degrees Celsius. The old record was 26.4 C, set in 1966. The data for that national park only goes back as far as 1966.
McMurtry said Banff temperatures usually average 12 C for the month of June. So far, the June average has been 13.1 C.
“We have seen above normal temperatures so far,” he said. “We’re in the early portions of June and typically as you get to the end of June temperatures tend to be warmer.”
June is the wettest month of the year in many locations, including Banff. So far this month, 10.7 mm of precipitation has been measured at the Banff weather station. Typically, 61.7 mm is recorded for the month of June.
“Typically, you get cold lows from the Pacific and it brings lots of precipitation over a short period of time,” McMurtry said. “We can get close to a month’s precipitation in one event that lasts several days. They tend to be more large-scale events.”
At press time, meteorologists were predicting rain for Banff and the Bow Valley starting on Friday (June 12) and continuing into Saturday (June 13).
“The heaviest rain is targeting central and northern Alberta, but Banff will see some rain,” McMurtry said.
Heading into summer, McMurtry said computer models are predicting above average temperatures for the months of June, July and August across much of Western Canada. It’s hard to predict if summer will be drier than normal.
“Precipitation wise, there’s not a lot of skill forecasting precipitation too far in advance,” he said.
