[52-6F-62]

Alberta is weird.

I experienced both temps in Calgary—it's notoriously volatile because of the Chinook winds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind) that come down from the Rockies.

Middle of summer could see a swing from -15°C to +15°C inside of hours. Calgary would frequently be -30 to -40 in the winter and easily a dry heat of +30 in the summers, but usually not for extended periods because the winds would inevitably change.

[throwaway0a5e]

It's not weird (other than the fact that the current temps are a record). Wild temp swings over short periods and a huge diff between winter and summer is par for the course in continental interiors where you're var away from the temperature stabilizer that is the ocean.

It's just that nearly everyone on HN is from the coastal plain(s) of North America or Europe so this isn't something people think about unless they need to make a "it gets cold in the desert at night" quip for easy points.

[52-6F-62]

It's a wind phenomenon of a particular kind specific to that region. That's weird. It's weird to have a swing of 20-50 degrees within a single day. It's regular in those specific regions, but it's weird on whole. If you don't like the word weird, you can use the word strange or unique. Weird is more fun. I like fun.