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49-614: Fort Macleod ( / m ə ˈ k l aʊ d / mə- KLOWD ) is a town in southern Alberta , Canada. It was originally named Macleod to distinguish it from the North-West Mounted Police barracks (Fort Macleod, built 1874) it had grown around. The fort was named in honour of the then Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police , Colonel James Macleod . Founded as the Municipality of

98-401: A 49 °F (27 °C) change in temperature. This occurred in just 2 minutes. Spearfish, South Dakota also holds the world record for the fastest decrease in temperature, for the same day. On January 22, 1943, the temperature decreased from 54 to −4 °F (12 to −20 °C), a 58 °F (32 °C) change in temperature. This occurred in 27 minutes. Rapid City, South Dakota had

147-548: A Main Street Restoration Project in 1982, aiming to preserve the sandstone and brick buildings, some dating back to 1878. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , the Town of Fort Macleod had a population of 3,297 living in 1,342 of its 1,440 total private dwellings, a change of 11.1% from its 2016 population of 2,967. With a land area of 22.54 km (8.70 sq mi), it had

196-477: A few days during a Chinook; as the warm coastal Chinooks blow from the southwest, they push back east the cold Arctic air. The snow melts quickly and is gone within a week. The effects on the Interior of British Columbia when a coastal Chinook is in effect are the reverse. In a rainy spell, most of the heavy moisture will be wrung out of the rising air as a consequence of crossing over the mountain ramparts before

245-460: A föhn cloud, is seen in eastern New Zealand . The stunning colors seen in the Chinook arch are quite common. Typically, the colours will change throughout the day, starting with yellow, orange, red, and pink shades in the morning as the sun comes up, grey shades at midday changing to pink / red colours, and then orange / yellow hues just before the sun sets. The interior Chinook is a föhn wind ,

294-429: A population density of 146.3/km (378.8/sq mi) in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Town of Fort Macleod recorded a population of 2,967 living in 1,226 of its 1,426 total private dwellings, a -4.8% change from its 2011 population of 3,117. With a land area of 23.41 km (9.04 sq mi), it had a population density of 126.7/km (328.3/sq mi) in 2016. The town

343-437: A rain shadow wind which results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air which has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes ( orographic lift ). As a consequence of the different adiabatic rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes. Sometimes the interior Chinooks are caused by the same air flow as the coastal Chinooks: As moist winds from

392-462: A sharp increase in the number of migraine headaches suffered by the locals. At least one study conducted by the department of clinical neurosciences at the University of Calgary supports that belief. They are popularly believed to increase irritability and sleeplessness . In mid-winter over major centres such as Calgary, interior Chinooks can often override cold air in the city, trapping

441-401: A temperature of 24 °C (75 °F); again, the next day 21 °C (70 °F) was recorded. The interior Chinooks can seem to battle with Arctic air masses at times. This clash of temperatures can remain stationary, or move back and forth, in the latter case causing such fluctuations as a warm morning, a bitterly cold afternoon, and a warm evening. A curtain of fog often accompanies

490-478: Is generally between 16 km/h (10mph) and 60 km/h (37.5mph), gusting to 100 km/h (62.5 mph). "Chinook" is used for coastal Chinook winds in British Columbia , and is the original use of the term, being rooted in the lore of coastal natives and immigrants, and brought to Alberta by French-speaking fur-traders. Such winds are extremely wet and warm and arrive off the western coast of North America from

539-639: Is in the northern Great Plains region, lined to the east from the Canadian Rocky Mountains and their foothills. The rest of the region is dominated by the semi-arid prairies of the Palliser's Triangle , where farms and ranches have been built, often with the help of irrigation . Rivers generally flow from west to east and include the Oldman River , Bow River , Red Deer River , South Saskatchewan River , and Milk River . Milk River

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588-693: Is located in the Municipal District of Willow Creek No. 26 , at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 3 , on the Oldman River . It lies west of the larger community of Lethbridge , near the reserves of the Peigan and Kainai First Nations . It is also located close to the Waterton Lakes National Park . The town is located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of the McBride Lake Wind Farm , one of

637-468: Is the Chinook arch , a föhn cloud in the form of a band of stationary stratus clouds , caused by air rippling over the mountains due to orographic lifting . To those unfamiliar with it, the Chinook arch may at times look like a threatening storm cloud, however, the arch clouds rarely produce rain or snow. They can also create stunning sunrises and sunsets. A similar phenomenon, the nor'west arch , also

686-504: Is the only river in Canada that eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico . The environment is protected in such areas as Waterton Lakes National Park and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park , while sites such as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump , Dinosaur Provincial Park and Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites . The Alberta Badlands are developed in

735-616: Is used in the Puget Sound area of Washington . Coastal "Chinook" is not pronounced shin-uk ( / ʃ ɪ ˈ n ʊ k / ) as it is in the interior, east of the Cascades, but is in the original coastal pronunciation chin-uk ( / t ʃ ɪ ˈ n ʊ k / ). In British Columbia and other parts of the Pacific Northwest , the word Chinook was predominantly pronounced / tʃ ɪ ˈ n ʊ k / chi- NUUK . However,

784-601: The Rocky Mountain region. Montana especially has a significant amount of föhn winds throughout much of the state during the winter months, but particularly coming off the Rocky Mountain Front in the northern and west-central areas of the state. On rare occasions, Chinook winds generated on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains have reached as far east as Wisconsin. Loma, Montana has

833-765: The Squamish people , and in Alaska are called a williwaw . They consist of cold airstreams from the continental air mass pouring out of the interior plateau via certain river valleys and canyons penetrating the Coast Mountains towards the coast. A similar, local föhn wind regularly occurs in the Cook Inlet region in Alaska, as air moves over the Chugach Mountains between Prince William Sound and Portage Glacier . Anchorage residents often believe

882-609: The pollutants in the cold air and causing inversion smog . At such times, it is possible for it to be cold at street level and much warmer at the tops of the skyscrapers and in higher terrain. In the North American western interior, winds that are generally called föhn winds by meteorologists and climatologists are called "Chinooks". Regardless of the name, föhns can occur on the leeward side of any nearby mountain range. The föhns called "Chinook winds" are seen throughout most of inland western North America, particularly

931-419: The 2021 film Ghostbusters: Afterlife . This site was also used as a filming location for 2023 TV Series The Last of Us . 49°43′32.1″N 113°23′51.1″W  /  49.725583°N 113.397528°W  / 49.725583; -113.397528  ( Fort Macleod ) Southern Alberta The region has a total area of approximately 75,500 km (29,151 sq mi). Southern Alberta

980-517: The CPR moved the divisional point and 200 jobs to Lethbridge , devastating the local economy. Fort Macleod ceased to grow, and in 1924 was forced to declare bankruptcy. Until the 1970s, the town's economy stagnated and the buildings from the turn-of-the-century remained untouched. In 1978 Alberta Culture started to inventory the downtown buildings, and in 1982 the downtown became Alberta's first "Provincial Historic Area". As well, Heritage Canada started

1029-484: The North America. A strong föhn wind can make snow one foot (30 cm) deep almost vanish in one day. The snow partly sublimates and partly melts and evaporates in the dry wind. Chinook winds have been observed to raise winter temperature , often from below −20 °C (−4 °F) to as high as 10–20 °C (50–68 °F) for a few hours or days, then temperatures plummet to their base levels. Its speed

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1078-478: The Pacific (coastal Chinooks) are forced to rise over the mountains, the moisture in the air is condensed and falls out as precipitation, while the air cools at the moist adiabatic rate of 5 °C / 1000 m (3.5 °F / 1000 ft). The dried air then descends on the leeward side of the mountains, warming at the dry adiabatic rate of 10 °C / 1000 m (5.5 °F / 1000 ft). The turbulence of the high winds also can prevent

1127-470: The Town of Macleod in 1892, the name was officially changed to the already commonly used Fort Macleod in 1952. The fort was built as a 70 by 70 metres (230 ft × 230 ft) square on October 18, 1874. The east side held the men's quarters and the west side held those of the Mounties. Buildings such as hospitals, stores and guardrooms were in the south end. Stables and the blacksmith's shop were in

1176-527: The United States, and are not as common north of Red Deer , but they can and do occur annually as far north as High Level in northwestern Alberta and Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia , and as far south as Las Vegas, Nevada, and occasionally to Carlsbad, in eastern New Mexico. In Pincher Creek, the temperature rose by 25.5 °C (45.9 °F), from −23.2 to 2.2 °C (−9.8 to 36.0 °F), in one hour on 6 January 1966. During

1225-645: The air mass descends (and hence warms and dries) into the Fraser Canyon and the Thompson River - Okanagan area. The effects are similar to those of an Albertan interior Chinook, though not to the same extreme, partly because the Okanagan is relatively warmer than the Prairies , and partly because of the additional number of precipitation-catching mountain ranges between Kelowna and Calgary . When

1274-410: The clash between warm to the west and cold to the east. Two common cloud patterns seen in the interior during this time are a chinook arch overhead, and a bank of clouds (also referred to as a cloud wall) obscuring the mountains to the west. The bank appears to be an approaching storm, but does not advance any further to the east. One of its most striking features of the interior Chinook weather system

1323-479: The coastal Chinook brings snow to the coast during a period of coastal cold, bright but chilly weather in the interior will give way to a slushy melting of snow, more due to the warm spell than because of rain. The word "Chinook" remains in common use among local fishermen and people in communities along the British Columbia Coast , and coastal Washington and Oregon , and in particular, the term

1372-616: The common pronunciation current throughout most of the inland Pacific Northwest , Alberta, and the rest of Canada, is / ʃ ɪ ˈ n ʊ k / shi- NUUK , as in French. This difference may be because it was the Métis employees of the Hudson's Bay Company , who were familiar with the Chinook people and country, brought the name east of the Cascades and Rockies , along with their own ethnic pronunciation. Early records are clear that tshinook

1421-471: The form of snowflakes, and told her they were coming to get her. They came in great number and quarrelled with Glacier over her, but they overwhelmed him and in the end she went home with them. Interior Chinooks are most prevalent over southern Alberta in Canada, especially in a belt from Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass through Lethbridge , which get 30–35 Chinook days per year, on average. Interior Chinooks become less frequent further south in

1470-521: The giant dust clouds were created on location using large fans to blow cellulose-based synthetic dust through the air. Francesco Lucente 's motion picture drama Badland was filmed mostly in Fort Macleod. Francesco Lucente lived in Fort Macleod from 1974 to 1978. His father Salvatore Lucente owned the American and Queens Hotels during that time. The downtown historic buildings were also used in

1519-596: The largest wind farms in Alberta. The wind farm has a capacity of 75 megawatts of electricity. Fort Macleod experiences a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfb ). The community enjoys frequent breaks from cold spells in winter when the Chinook wind blows down-slope from the Rocky Mountains . A Chinook on 27 February 1992 caused the temperature to rise to 26.5 °C (80 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded at Fort Macleod

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1568-486: The more commonly used term "Chinook" originates from the name of the eponymous Chinook people , who lived near the ocean, along the lower Columbia River , where the term was first derived. The reference to "a Chinook" wind or weather system originally meant, to euro-American settlers along the Pacific Northwest coast, a warming wind from the ocean blowing into the interior regions of the Pacific Northwest of

1617-589: The north end. The town grew on the location of the Fort Macleod North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) Barracks, the second headquarters of the NWMP after Fort Livingstone was abandoned in 1876. Fort Macleod was originally established in 1874 on a peninsula along the Oldman River , then moved in 1884 to the present town location. The Museum of the North-West Mounted Police is located in Fort Macleod. Once agricultural settlement and

1666-472: The northeast of the region, prominently along the Red Deer River. Cypress Hills , located in the east, at the border with Saskatchewan , are the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador . Health care in the region is overseen by Alberta Health Services . It was formerly served by Calgary Health Region , Chinook Health and Palliser Health Region before they were amalgamated with

1715-459: The ocean. The interior Chinooks are occasional warm, dry föhn winds blowing down the eastern sides of interior mountain ranges. The coastal Chinooks were the original term, used along the northwest coast, and the term in the interior of North America is later and derives from the coastal term. In the interior of North America, the Blackfoot people call these winds the "snow eater"; however,

1764-561: The other six regional health boards in 2008 to form Alberta Health Services. In 2007, Alberta Human Resources and Employment reported the fields of finance, insurance, real estate, professions, technicians and senior managers will lead the Lethbridge–Medicine Hat region's growth with an average 2.8% real GDP growth each year until 2011. The industries of manufacturing, energy, mining, and forestry would account for 2.6% each. All ten of these fields would account for more than half of

1813-502: The railway came to the region, Macleod boomed. The town became a divisional point for the Canadian Pacific Railway and frontier wood construction began to be replaced by brick and sandstone. In 1906 a fire devastated the downtown and destroyed most of the wooden buildings. From 1906 to 1912 Macleod had its greatest period of growth, as more new brick and stone building replaced the destroyed wooden ones. Then in 1912

1862-1007: The region's domestic product. On a provincial level, southern Alberta is represented in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta by MLAs elected in the ridings of Airdrie-Cochrane , Airdrie-East , Banff-Kananaskis , Brooks-Medicine Hat , Cardston-Siksika , Chestermere-Strathmore , Cypress-Medicine Hat , Highwood , Lethbridge East , Lethbridge West , Livingstone-Macleod , and Taber-Warner . Cities Towns Villages Specialized municipalities Improvement districts Municipal districts Special areas 50°N 112°W  /  50°N 112°W  / 50; -112  ( Southern Alberta ) Chinook wind Chinook winds , or simply Chinooks , are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from

1911-423: The region's stormy winds come when a fast "westerly" jet stream lets air masses from temperate and subarctic latitudes clash. When a coastal Chinook comes in when an Arctic air mass is holding steady over the coast, the tropical dampness brought in suddenly cools, penetrating the frozen air and coming down in volumes of powder snow , sometimes to sea level . Snowfalls and the cold spells that spawned them only last

1960-583: The same flow of air, hence the confusion over the use of the name "Chinook wind". The frequent midwinter thaws by interior Chinooks in Great Plains country are more of a bane than a blessing to gardeners. Plants can be visibly brought out of dormancy by persistent, warm interior Chinook winds, or have their hardiness reduced even if they appear to remain dormant. In either case, they become vulnerable to later cold waves. Many plants which do well at Winnipeg – where constant cold maintains dormancy throughout

2009-482: The southwest. These same winds have more recently been called the pineapple express , since they are of tropical origin, roughly from the area of the Pacific near Hawaii. The air associated with a coastal Chinook is stable; this minimizes wind gusts and often keeps winds light in sheltered areas. In exposed areas, fresh gales are frequent during a Chinook, but strong gale- or storm-force winds are uncommon; most of

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2058-582: The usual nocturnal temperature inversion from forming on the lee side of the slope, allowing night-time temperatures to remain elevated. Quite often, when the Pacific Northwest coast is being drenched by rain, the windward (western) side of the Rockies is being hammered by snow (robbing the air of its moisture), and the leeward (eastern) side of the Rockies in Alberta is basking in a föhn Chinook. The three different weather conditions are all caused by

2107-544: The winter – are difficult to grow in the Alberta Chinook belt. Examples include basswood , some apple , raspberry , and juneberry varieties, and Amur maples . Native trees in the interior Chinook-affected areas of Alberta are known to be small, with much less growth than the same species growing in areas not affected by interior Chinook winds. This is once again caused by the "off-and-on" dormancy throughout winter. Interior Chinook winds are said to sometimes cause

2156-417: 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 a metre. Empty semitrailer trucks driving along Highway 3 and other routes in southern Alberta have been blown over by the high gusts of wind caused by interior Chinooks. On 27 February 1992, Claresholm , Alberta, a town just south of Calgary, recorded

2205-443: The world record for the fastest decrease in temperature. On January 10, 1911, the temperature decreased from 60 to 13 °F (16 to −11 °C), a 47 °F (26 °C) change in temperature. The resulting outflow wind is more or less the opposite of British Columbia / Pacific Northwest coastal Chinook. These are called a squamish in certain areas, rooted in the direction of such winds coming down out of Howe Sound , home to

2254-400: The world record for the most extreme temperature change in a 24-hour period. On January 15, 1972, the temperature increased from −54 to 49 °F (−48 to 9 °C), a 103 °F (57 °C) change in temperature. Spearfish, South Dakota holds the world record for the fastest increase in temperature. On January 22, 1943, the temperature increased from −4 to 45 °F (−20 to 7 °C),

2303-666: Was 102 °F (38.9 °C) on 7 July 1896, 18 July 1910, and 17 July 1919. The coldest temperature ever recorded was −49 °F (−45.0 °C) on 2 February 1905, 17 December 1924, and 28 January 1929. The town is home to the Fort Macleod Mustangs , Senior AA men's hockey team of the Ranchland Hockey League. Fort Macleod's local weekly newspaper is the Fort Macleod Gazette . The 2005 romantic drama film Brokeback Mountain

2352-517: Was filmed in part in Fort Macleod. The laundry apartment is located at 2422 Third Avenue, where a sign is posted marking the "passionate reunion" of Jack and Ennis. Passchendaele was also filmed in Fort Macleod's historic downtown, which acted as a stand-in for Calgary circa 1915. Scenes involving the dust storm and Matthew McConaughey 's character were also filmed in Fort Macleod in Christopher Nolan 's 2014 film Interstellar , where

2401-502: Was the original pronunciation, before the word's transmission east of the Rockies. Native legend of the Lil'wat subgroup of the St'at'imc tells of a girl named Chinook-Wind, who married Chinook Glacier, and moved to his country, which was in the area of today's Birkenhead River . She pined for her warm sea-home in the southwest, and sent a message to her people. They came to her in a vision in

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