No blue moon but lotsa lightning for Pincher Creek
If you thought the weather in and around Pincher Creek was a little crazy Wednesday night, you’d be right.
A rather intense thunderstorm blanketed the region for the better part of eight hours during the evening and overnight hours, bringing with it wind, heavy rain at times, and both sheet and fork lightning.
“We had a low pressure that settled itself over the southern Prairies,” explains Justin Shelley, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
“It’s currently centred (10 a.m. Thursday) over central Saskatchewan. Last night, of course, during the storms it was a little farther west, where we had a line of thunderstorms that extended from the southern half of our province right into Montana.”
Shelley said the system was slow moving and created a train-like effect where the storms seemed to back into each other, translating into the heavy pockets of wind and rain that we saw.
Combined with rain earlier in the day, the Pincher Creek airport weather station received 23.3 millimetres in precipitation from midnight to midnight Wednesday, while Brocket, to the northeast, collected 47.2 millimetres in its rain gauge.
But is there more wet weather on the way? Maybe, toward the end of the long weekend, Shelley predicts.
“It does look like we might see another system move through the area on Sunday or Monday, but probably not what happened last night,” he adds.
The seven-day forecast from Environment Canada is for generally dry conditions, with sunshine Friday through Sunday and highs in the mid to upper 20s.
A 60 per cent chance of showers follows on Monday.
Skies are expected to clear for the first day of school Tuesday, with a more manageable daytime high of 17.