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(photo credit to EverythingGP's Curtis Galbraith)
Weather

High Pressure system bringing beautiful conditions to Peace Country

Jul 22, 2019 | 12:32 PM

Mother nature has blessed Grande Prairie and the Peace Country with some nice weather this past weekend and the sunny conditions are going to carry over into the start of the new week.

Meteorologist with Environment Canada Kyle Fougere shares that the Swan City is in the middle of a ridge of high pressure.

“Most of Alberta is under a ridge of high pressure right now. This tends to bring lots of warm and cloud free skies. Typically, when we have a couple of days of really nice conditions and temperatures it is because there is a ridge of high pressure which is over the province.”

The conditions over the weekend along with the sunshine and heat we are expecting to receive to start this week will not be favourable for the firefighters up north who are battling the Chuckegg Creek blaze.

“Warm temperatures and low relative humidity are very bad for fires and it looks like those conditions are in place right now. This ridge of high pressure is going to last until tomorrow (Tuesday), but then we have a low-pressure system move through Wednesday (which) will provide some cooler and rainy conditions.”

Despite the warm and sunny weather over the last few days in the Peace Country, the region has received a fair amount of rain and summer storms during the month of July.

However, as Fougere notes, even though it seems like the region has been plagued with rainfall in July, we are close to average for this time of year.

“Pretty much on average. I think right now Grande Prairie is slightly above average when it comes to rain for July. We are on pace for 10 mm more rain on average. In a typical July, Grande Prairie receives around 76 mm of precipitation and so far, there has been 58 mm of rain 21 days into the month of July.”

Despite the warm conditions Monday and Tuesday in the Swan City, there is a slight chance both days could see showers or even a thunderstorm.