Weather and Gardening Discussion

[Surrealplaces]

Flowers in the Northwest, right on time about a week after Mission.

 

[DougB]

I used to regularly travel regularly between, Mission, Capitol Hill, and Edgemont, and every spring without fail, you could see the differences of the three neighborhoods. Lilacs, tree buds and leaves, flowers, you name it, it was always the same. Mission was usually about a week-10 days ahead of Capitol Hill, and Capitol Hill was a week-10 days ahead of Edgemont.

I would expect the urban heat island effect to be more pronounced in Calgary than in other cities as the natural environment of high attitude, dry plains has poor ability to retain heat. The inner city would be more pronounced due to more tree cover and great building density.

I noticed the same effect in Edmonton: the area around U of A seemed about 2 weeks ahead in the Spring and 2 weeks behind the rest of the city in the Fall. Even in the Summer, driving at night from U of A / Garneau / Old Strathcona towards the outer suburbs with the windows down would produce a noticeable drop of in temperature. Other high and/or dry cities seem to produce similar drop off in heat island effect from inner city to the outer burbs: Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake.

 

[Disraeli]

I would expect the urban heat island effect to be more pronounced in Calgary than in other cities as the natural environment of high attitude, dry plains has poor ability to retain heat. The inner city would be more pronounced due to more tree cover and great building density.

I noticed the same effect in Edmonton: the area around U of A seemed about 2 weeks ahead in the Spring and 2 weeks behind the rest of the city in the Fall. Even in the Summer, driving at night from U of A / Garneau / Old Strathcona towards the outer suburbs with the windows down would produce a noticeable drop of in temperature. Other high and/or dry cities seem to produce similar drop off in heat island effect from inner city to the outer burbs: Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake.

That and most of Calgary's inner city is located in a river valley which helps retain moisture from the rivers which I imagine contributes to the heat island effect

 

[Cowtown]

I would expect the urban heat island effect to be more pronounced in Calgary than in other cities as the natural environment of high attitude, dry plains has poor ability to retain heat. The inner city would be more pronounced due to more tree cover and great building density.

I noticed the same effect in Edmonton: the area around U of A seemed about 2 weeks ahead in the Spring and 2 weeks behind the rest of the city in the Fall. Even in the Summer, driving at night from U of A / Garneau / Old Strathcona towards the outer suburbs with the windows down would produce a noticeable drop of in temperature. Other high and/or dry cities seem to produce similar drop off in heat island effect from inner city to the outer burbs: Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake.

Bang on about the heat being retained later in the evenings. So many times I've been driving around Mission or Beltline on a summer night, and you can literally feel the temp drop when head over to the north side of downtown. It stays steady through Kensington and then drops again when you head up the hill by SAIT.

 

[DougB]

That and most of Calgary's inner city is located in a river valley which helps retain moisture from the rivers which I imagine contributes to the heat island effect

Unsure if the rivers would do much given their dimunitive size and glacial temperatures. I can remember many times riding my bike at night and feeling a chill in close proximity to any of the rivers. That could be due to cold air being denser.

 

[Mountain Man]

The rivers definitely make it colder, never noticed a bump in humidity right beside the river either. The micro climates downtown are due to the sun reflecting / radiating off buildings and onto the ground beside them.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

I haven't been able to find a map with the details well shown, but different parts of Calgary are actually in different plant hardiness zones. Most of the city is in zone 4a, but areas west of Sarcee, north/west of Crowchild/16th Ave/Centre St, and east of the airport (Redstone/Saddletowne etc) are in hardiness zone 3b. Here's an approximate map; the light yellow-green is 4a and the green is 3b.

Mission is 4a, Edgemont is 3b and Capitol Hill is right on the boundary.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Quite the transition... summer to winter in 12 hours if the leaves had been a bit bigger on most trees, this could have been a disaster event like that one September storm a few years back.

 

[Surrealplaces]

From sunburn to frostbite lol

 

[UrbanWarrior]

It’s been a very picturesque day weather wise...

 

[Surrealplaces]

Calgary's weather can be challenging for gardening. Yesterday morning it was beautiful and sunny out, when I put my tomato plants out in the sun. I went to run a couple of errands and when I came back, the plants had been hailed on. I brought them in, and a half hour later it was beautiful and sunny, so I put them out again. I went into my den to do some work, only to hear the sound of hail pellets not long after. The plants got hit twice in one day. Luckily they are okay, but I'm pretty sure they hate me lol.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Ugh that sucks man! Yeah I haven’t put out anything, but my garden out front is flourishing. Even my sage which I destroyed by accident this winter is coming back!

It makes me smile seeing all the tulips blooming

 

[UrbanWarrior]

 

[Surrealplaces]

Tomatoes and broccoli planted today. The two beds further down in the photo are carrots and beets.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Looks great. I'm jealous of your veggie garden.