Calgary's Wild Weather

It’s official, Mother Nature is bipolar.

North America has been receiving some very erratic weather as of late. Out here, it’s been a little more consistent than erratic … consistently bad, that is.

So far this year, we’ve had about two warm days. Luckily, both on weekends. But here we are, a month into spring, and I’m still hauling out my winter jacket. Two months ago, I wouldn’t have cared about that. Those of you who know me reasonably well know that I rather like winter. I like snow. I even like the mind-numbing cold … for short periods of time, anyway.

But this weather truly sucks.

Take yesterday, for example. I was waiting around for an insurance agent to call. (I’m looking around for quotes on mortgage insurance, as well as new house insurance. Although this particular agent is more of a favour for a friend, so I don’t know if it will go anywhere at all.) I was fiddling around with one of my own personal websites when my phone rang. It was Joanne (the agent). She asked me why I was still at work. I asked if we were still meeting (yeah, I know, you should never answer a question with a question, but it was a lead-in for an answer I never got to give). She said it was snowing.

I looked out the window. Overcast, yes. Snow, no.

Snowing? I asked. Yep — lots of it in the South East. I work in the South East. (Well, barely, anyway.) But there was no snow that I could see. But apparently the weather was getting really miserable. Joanne suggested we hold off until next week. (It was better for her, anyway.) I agreed, and figured I should head out — I hadn’t brought a winter jacket, and it sounded like it was going to get really cold.

I took the C-Train — the wind was just chilly enough to make walking uncomfortable in the jacket I had. In hindsight, it was the best thing I could have done. No more than five minutes after I’d returned to my apartment did I happen to notice something. I couldn’t see buildings a block away. It was snowing. Hard. We were having a blizzard.

It’s Spring. Or at least it’s supposed to be Spring. But this weather would make you really wonder what month it is. Were it not for the fact that it gets dark much later in the evening, you’d almost swear it was December. And even if the groundhog did see his shadow, we should be well in the clear by now.

Spring never sprung here — it’s still frozen stuck.

This is going to be a bit of an odd year for weather, I think. I’m not sure if this is an effect of El Nino (supposedly back on the rise again) or of global warming (which really isn’t proving itself out here). We’re probably going to see a cooler west, a hotter and more humid south (we should probably expect a Class 5 hurricane), and probably a few more violent weather shifts across the continent. Heck, we might even see a tornado around Cowtown.

So if you see good weather this year, get out in it while you can. If you blink, you might miss it…

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