By Shaun Penner

Rainy July

Wet weather to continue in the Peace Region following wet week

Jul 6, 2020 | 5:30 AM

What was a wet week in the Peace Country last week is expected to give way to some more showers this week, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The national weather office says between 45 and 70 mm of rain soaked the Peace Region between Tuesday night and Saturday, including setting a Canada Day record for rainfall in Grande Prairie, when 37.1 mm fell on July 1.

With more rain in the forecast, Meteorologist Alysa Pederson says July is setting up to be one of the area’s wetter months on record.

“We’re looking at an average for June being about 70 (mm of rainfall), and an average for July being 69 mm. So, a five-day total, it does cross the month, but we’re pretty high up there for how wet it is this year, compared to what the average is.”

The string of wet weather is caused because the area, and the rest of Alberta, are jammed in between two very different weather systems, according to Pederson.

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“Over British Columbia, we have all this cold air – what we call an upper trough – and then in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, we’ve had an upper ridge that’s filled with a lot of hot air,” notes Pederson, who mentions many parts of southern Manitoba and northern Ontario have seen temperatures hitting in the mid-30’s over the last week.

“Being in Alberta, kind of stuck between the two, that’s very conducive to showery, unstable, very active weather here.”

So, if places such as Winnipeg are getting the summer heat, is Grande Prairie going to get to enjoy that soon, too?

Pederson says the simple answer is no. However, temperatures are forecast to stay around the seasonal average over the next two weeks, hanging around the low 20’s.

“There’s no indications that we’re going to be going above normal anytime soon,” said Pederson “If you do look at the public forecasts this week, we are sitting around that normal. The temperature highs for the days are typically between 18 to 22 degrees. Just, unfortunately, with those showers.”

With some more wet weather on the way, Pederson says it will be interesting to see if rainfall will reach record amounts in the area. The Grande Prairie record was established in 1983, when 173 mm of rain fell in July of that year.

Though there is still a long way to go to catch that record, she says another big rainfall could put the area on track to break it.

“I know, two years ago, when the Alberta Summer Games were in the region, there was a three-day, big rainfall event that hit at that point. And that was in mid-July.

“So, if we get an event like that again this year, then yeah, absolutely it’s possible.”