One thing I would like to add. If you look at a map of all of the different people taking temp readings around the outside of the city, they are all very very consistent with each other based on the amount of distance they are from the city centre. Its about 4-5 degree diff from the city centre. Where is this anomaly called the international coming from?? There are many readings around the international at -2 or -3 and it is -8.....and this difference happens every single night.

ps. I got a horrible answer from weather canada when I asked them how that could be possible. They dodged the question and said that overall in the past 30 years the difference in avg. temp year over year isn't that different from the int to the city centre, which is a lie.

One thing you have to think about is the amount of concrete and pavement in a city. It absorbs the heat and keeps the temperature milder than in outlying areas. We've had two major frosts in the past couple of days (-3°C), but in the town of Dryden, the temp has just gone down to 1°C.

As for weather forecasts, i watch them religiously in spite of the fact that they lie! I'm Canadian, eh? :)

I understand that the city will be warmer....but why are outside areas not in the city, so much warmer than the international airport right beside them?? And if your concrete theory is correct, than the international should be artificially warmer also because of the amount of concrete there.

If it's the same situation as Winnipeg's Richardson Airport, I have the answer. YWG's weather station is located in an area with very poor cold air drainage. Cold air pools in the immediate area surrounding the Stevenson screen, producing a strong cold bias. YWG had a more appropriately placed weather station before the early '90s. So, if you look at their historical weather, growing seasons seem to have 'become' shorter after the location was moved. They recorded -4.6 on June 6th, colder than any other reporting station in southern MB.

I don't know if it's the same situation at YEG but I would guess it's something like that.

I was going to say about the same thing as drhorticulture. Elevation makes a difference, as does a large concentration of buildings, presence of a water body (in Winnipeg the rivers), etc. Some Winnipeg temperatures are recorded at the Forks downtown, and they are usually quite different from the airport.

Totally agree with oiltown....this had me troubled since last year, they would have readings of minus 48 C when most everywhere in the area had minus 40.
This morning here in Beaumont was minus 4, Airport 15 min. away had minus 10....I don't buy it!
They should seriously look into this, If can see the runway from Leduc Mc. Donald, I don't buy a 5 degree C. difference!

Konrad

I can't speak to the thermometer readings, but I had noticed in the past that it always FEELS about 10C colder at the airport than at my MIL's house outside Sherwood Park. I always figured this had to do with windchill, because her house is in a sheltered location, whereas the airport is totally flat and open. It's odd to me that there is also a difference in thermometer readings. I know my MIL's house is consistently 3-5 degrees below the city temperature, I understand how that works, but the airport temperature difference is really strange. Especially if the difference is present even from Leduc and Beaumont, which are so close. Mysterious-er and mysterious-er.

Here's an interesting stat. Since record taking, the city centre has hit -40 only once and it was 40 on the dot. Yet the international is below -40 every single year easily. You can see a 15 degree difference at times. Why is the journal and sun using historical data from the international but city centre forecasts...

I think mainly because - 40 sounds like it's newsworthy, not - 25.