Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 148, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1914 — Climate of Alberta. [ARTICLE]

Climate of Alberta.

The figures of crop returns, both general and specific, Which are generally known, are in themselves the best tribute to the climate of Alberta. If the climate were not one exceptionally favorable to terming operations, such yields extending over a representative period of years would be impossible. It is not denied that at times there is severe winter weather in Alberta, in January and February short periods of cold, sharp weather are to be expected, but at such times the sky is almost always bright and cloudless, and the dry, pure air renders the cold more bearable than temperatures many degrees higher in damp climates. These cold period® are generally of short duration. The snowfall is scanty, the precipitation being practically all in the summer months. There is no rain in winter. Heavy snowstorms hove at times covered the prairie more than a toot deep, but this is very unusual except in the more northerly districts. The winter generally break® up in February with warm winds from the west, followed by a period of from one to three weeks of warm, bright weather, the beginning of southern Alberta’s spring. The earliest spring flowers appear in March. May is generally fine, warm and bright June and the earlier part of July, rainy, the remainder of July, August, September, October and generally November, warm and dry. The summer, July to September, ie characterized by warm days, relei ved by a never failing breeze and cool nights, but warm, golden days of autumn, often lasting well into December, are the glory of the year. The grand characteristic of the climate as a whole and the one on Which the weather hinges, is the Chinook winds, so called because it blow® from the region formerly inhabited by Chinook Indians, on the banks of the lower Columbia river. It i® a warm, dry, balmy wind, blowing from the mountains across the plains, and it® effect in winter may be described os little short of miraculous in maintaining temperature milder than prevails in latitudes much--further south.