tsujigiri

The editorial comments of Chris and James, covering the news, science, religion, politics and culture.

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Saturday, July 17, 2004

The weather?

I am beginning to believe that the Alberta weather services do not actually have instruments, and perhaps not even windows. I have been wondering since I moved to Edmonton how weather.ca and weather.com can consistently report completely different current conditions for the same small city. Both of them are currently reporting that it is 80-84 degrees and partly or mostly cloudy. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky all day, and it has to be at least 90 out there. I have experienced 85-90 degree weather within the past month and I can guarantee that this is hotter. This is no different from last February, when one site reported a temperature of -30(C) while the other reported -53(C). Judging by the way they operate, I can authoritatively claim it was -70(C) that day. Even in Vermont they were saying it was -100(F), and we had to be colder than Vermont. During a big hail storm last week, more than a hundred million dollars damage was done in the city. The hail fell strong enough in parts of the city to destroy cars. The roof of the West Edmonton Mall was cracked open and the interior of the mall flooded. Then sewage backed up in the mall and all over the west end of the city. Dozens of cars were drowned. Bridges became structurally unsound. There were at least four tornadoes in the north Alberta region during the storm. Meanwhile, the weather service reported conditions as "partly cloudy." Apparently the tornado warning was issued in one town about two hours after the tornado had already ripped up main street.

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