Century-old temperature record broken in Calgary

Hot enough for ya?

Wednesday's high of 16.4 C in Calgary broke a century-old record, beating the previous mark of 15.6 Cset in 1916.

"Right now we have an upper ridge that's sitting overtop of Alberta, and that's brought in lots of warm air and kept our temperatures up for the last couple of days," said Brenda Niskaaro, lead meteorologist with Environment Canada.

That upper ridge is expected to start moving east on Thursday, taking the heat with it.

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"Things will cool off by a couple of degrees for [Thursday], and by the weekend, Saturday, we'll have a cold front that will be moving through as well and that will bring temperatures back down to around the freezing mark."

Temperatures in Calgary have seen large swings in recent days. Just last week, on Feb. 7, the city saw a high of 20 C, quite a contrast to this week's warmth.

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The science behind those warm winter winds and beautiful skyscapes.

"It's pretty normal for us to have really cold temperatures and to have really warm temperatures," said Niskaaro. "And once we do, with the systems moving slowly, they can last a week or two."

As someone who works outside,Chynna Shortte may have appreciated the warmth a little more than most.

"It's great to be outside not wearing a tuque and 10 layers," she said while spending the afternoon at Prince's Island Park.

Record warm temperatures were seen across the province, as Banff set a new high mark of 9.5 C, barely ahead of the previous record of 9.4 C, and in Edmonton it was also 16.4 C, well above the previous record of 13.9 C.

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