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Tom Monto

How is Medicine Hat of 1886-1887 the same as Edmonton in 2021/2022?


Medicine Hat 1886

Medicine Hat’s highest temperatures typically arrive between late May and early September where they usually reach the high 20° C.'s However, anybody in Medicine Hat during a seven-month spell in 1886 would have wondered what on earth was happening with the weather.

In July 1886 the fledgling town experienced its hottest ever period, when temperatures reached a stifling 42.2 °C.

Then just seven months later, in February 1887, the temperature in Medicine Hat plummeted to -46.1 °C, the lowest ever recorded temperature there.


Edmonton last summer set a heat record for the city and then in the winter came close to setting a record for cold.

Medicine Hat in late 1800s was both hotter and colder than Edmonton reached recently.


But Edmonton's weather was record-breaking heat and almost record cold.


Edmonton set a record hot day with temperature of 37.4 C on June 30, 2021;

and almost a record cold day of -41 C.


The lowest temperature ever recorded in Edmonton was −49.4 °C (−56.9 °F), on January 19 and 21, 1886.

That is darn cold!

Lots of sitting around in buffalo robes in front of a fire, wishing spring would come! Too bad for the poor soul who has to hurry out and fetch more wood for the fire!


With all that cold, we have to work out a system to carry that cold over to the next summer.

Store rooms full of ice could do it. We could fairly easily produce or gather chunks of ice in the winter and save them for the hot months.


Underground housing -- living down where temperature of ground is constant 4C - about the temperature of a fridge.




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