With all the soggy weather lately, it might seem like summer has already come and gone, but don鈥檛 pull out those winter boots just yet鈥� it looks like August will dry out with slightly above average temperatures.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 see any heat waves any time here, but that doesn鈥檛 mean fall is coming either,鈥� said Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist for Accuweather, an American company that provides weather forecasting services across North America
鈥淎ugust is looking like a fairly typical month with a lack of extremes. As summer comes to an end we鈥檒l ease into fall with just the right amount of rainfall so don鈥檛 completely put the umbrellas away just yet.鈥�
According to Anderson, during the first week of August two storm systems will pass through Jasper, creating a rainy and cool weekend August 5 to 7. Weekend temperatures are expected to hit a high of around 20 C with lows dipping around 0 C.
鈥淭ypically around this time of year we see an average high of around 22 C so we鈥檙e pretty close to normal, however, after that first week things will start to get warmer and we鈥檒l actually see temperatures reaching a little higher than normal,鈥� Anderson said.
For the remainder of August, Anderson is predicting highs will hover around 25 C with lows still hitting around 0 C, once the sun goes down.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no question about it鈥攖here are still some beach days left for the folks of Jasper,鈥� Anderson said.
With regards to the summer鈥檚 rainfall amounts, Anderson said the numbers for June and July were actually below average for the season, reaching only about 60 per cent of normal rainfall for July and about 40 per cent for June.
Jasper received around 50 mm of rain for the month of July and 28.3 mm of rain in June, below both monthly averages. The wettest day of the summer so far was July 13 when the park received 15.8 mm of rain in one day. 聽To put that in perspective the wettest day on record happened on June 3, 1980, when the park received 75 mm of rain in a single day.
鈥淭he higher elevations outside of town probably had above normal rainfall for the summer, but for the Town of Jasper it鈥檚 actually been below normal. I think people think it鈥檚 been abnormal rain levels because we had such a dry spring,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淲e were so used to that dry weather that we started to think below normal rainfall was normal.
鈥淭he weather has kind of been playing tricks with our minds.鈥�
During July, the Athabasca River rose about 45 cm, returning to its normal water level.
鈥淓ven those low river levels seemed normal,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淏ut things are just slowly turning back to normal.鈥�
Kayla Byrne
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