I really hate this city - Page 3

Chinooks are most prevalent over southern Alberta in Canada, especially in a belt from Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass through Lethbridge, which get 30 to 35 chinook days per year on average. Chinooks become less frequent further south in the United States, and are not as common north of Red Deer. But they can and do occur as far north as Grande Prairie in northwestern Alberta and Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia, and as far south as Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In southern Alberta, most of the winter can be spent with little or no snow on the ground. In Calgary, there is snow about 59% of the time on Christmas, compared to 88% for Edmonton.[3]. In Canada, only the West Coast of British Columbia and southern Ontario have fewer white Christmases than southern Alberta.

In Lethbridge, Chinook winds can gust in excess of hurricane force (120 km/h or 75 mph). On November 19, 1962, an especially powerful chinook there gusted to 171 km/h (107 mph).

In Pincher Creek, the temperature rose by 41°C (from -19°C to 22°C) in one hour in 1962 [4] - trains have been known to be derailed by chinook winds there. During the winter, driving can be treacherous as the wind blows snow across roadways sometimes causing roads to vanish and snowdrifts to pile up higher than 1 meter. Empty semi trucks driving along Highway 3 and other routes in Southern Alberta have been blown over by the high gusts of wind caused by chinooks.

Calgary also gets many chinooks - the Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies west of the city acts as a natural wind tunnel funneling the chinook winds.