Your own-made climate normals/averages

Here’s Red Cliff Pass at 12,028’ right next to Copper Mountain ski resort. Think it’s the highest station with temps in the state, precipitation is from the snotel station lower down but right nearby.

Only 10 years of data so take the averages with a grain of salt but still a good idea of what the climate high in the Rockies is like.

1951-1980 normals for Port Radium, Northwest Territories and Ennadai Lake, Nunavut

Golden, BC:

Cold Lake, AB:


Corner Brook, NL:

Here’s a really interesting find, Lake Vida in the McMurdo dry valleys in Antarctica:



Quite continental for Antarctica as it’s capable of getting the extreme cold of the interior as well as the milder summers of the coast.

However, what’s fascinating about it is the extreme diurnal ranges and variability it can get due to downsloping winds:

•On average 11 days a year get 50 f diurnals 
•There is an average of 1 >70 f diurnal/year
•July has seen a 118 f range in max temps, that’s like to a place recording a -10 f and 110 f in a month which I don’t think anywhere has

•Too time consuming to calculate yet but I’d assume winter highs range from the -60s f to ~10 f, which is probably more variable than anywhere on earth

Here’s the top 5 diurnals (in f):
5. High 19 Low -63
4. High 20 Low -62
3. High 13 Low -70
2. High 15 Low -72
1. High 19 Low -73  -an insane 92 f (51 c)!

Reminds me of something you’d see on Mars, also extremely dry and no snow cover either. Here’s what it looks like

source

It does seem plausible though given data from Leadville at 10k feet, plus general lapse rates of approx 3.5°F per 1k feet