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Leonardo DiCaprio's chinook climate change comments mocked by Alberta politicos on Twitter

The Revenant star made headlines this week for calling Calgary’s warm winter winds — or chinooks — climate change, leading to some intense social media mocking. But a local insider who worked on set says the weather last fall and winter was “crazy.”

But Calgarian who worked on set says the weather was 'wacky' last winter

Danielle Nerman, The Calgary Eyeopener · CBC News ·
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Hugh Glass in Alberta-shot film The Revenant. Production on all movies and series in the province ground to a halt as COVID-19 emerged. (20th Century Fox)

Several Alberta politicians and even the chair of the province's climate change panel, Andrew Leach, had a bit of fun on Twitter this week mocking Leonardo DiCaprio.

It all started after the Hollywood star called a chinook — a totally normal weather phenomenon that brings warm winds to southern Alberta as long as Albertans have been recording weather — climate change.

DiCaprio experienced the magic of a chinook, which he described as "scary" in a Variety.com article while shooting The Revenant near Calgary last winter.

"I've never experienced something so first-hand that was so dramatic. You see the fragility of nature and how easily things can be completely transformed with just a few degrees difference. It's terrifying, and it's what people are talking about all over the world. And it's simply just going to get worse," said DiCaprio.

"We were in Calgary and the locals were saying, 'This has never happened in our province ever.' We would come and there would be eight feet of snow, and then all of a sudden a warm gust of wind would come."

And it's not just Alberta politicos who are poking fun at DiCaprio's comments. Pretty much all of the province is taking this one and running with it.

 

Revenant insider defends DiCaprio

But one local who who worked on the set of the film will say last winter in Calgary was "wacky."

While he's no meteorologist, Steve Keivit — a trainee assistant director on The Revenant — says DiCaprio was likely "informed" about chinooks before he arrived in Alberta, but probably didn't know how quickly they can change the weather.

"You know, it's shocking to see that, to experience it when you're not from here. And even when you're from here it can be a bit crazy."

Keivit says snow-making machines were brought in on set, but some days it became too balmy to make snow. That's when the crew had to "pull it from the mountains" in Kananaskis.

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