Temperature, Precipitation, and Lightning Modification in the Vicinity of the Athabasca Oil Sands

The Athabasca oil sands development in northeast Alberta, Canada, has disturbed more than 500 km² of boreal forest through surface mining and tailings ponds development. In this paper, the authors compare the time series of temperatures and precipitation measured over oil sands and non–oil sands locations from 1994 to 2010. In addition, they analyzed the distribution of lightning strikes from 1999 to 2010. The oil sands development has not affected the number of lightning strikes or precipitation amounts but has affected the temperature regime. Over the past 17 years, the summer overnight minimum temperatures near the oil sands have increased by about 1.2°C compared to the regional average. The authors speculate that this is caused by a combination of the industrial addition of waste heat to the atmosphere above the oil sands and changing the surface type from boreal forest to open pit mines with tailings ponds.