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| Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of nearly 57,000 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada.
It is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, the eastern terminus of the Crowsnest Highway, and the South Saskatchewan River. Nearby towns considered part of the Medicine Hat area include Dunmore, Seven Persons, Redcliff, and Irvine. The Cypress Hills (including Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park) is a relatively short distance (by car) to the southeast of the city. Its major claim to fame is Rudyard Kipling's famous line "all hell for a basement" referring to the vast reserves of natural gas beneath it. It is because of this that the city is known as The Gas City. It is Alberta's sixth largest city.
The Medicine Hat landscape is dominated by the South Saskatchewan River valley. In addition to this major river, both the Seven Persons Creek and Ross Creek empty into the South Saskatchewan River within the City of Medicine Hat boundary. The presence of these water bodies provide for a dramatic valley landscape with numerous cliffs, and finger coulees throughout the City. Beyond the City and river valley the land is flat to slightly rolling and is characterized by short-grass vegetation.
Twenty-five miles to the east lies the Badlands Guardian Geological Feature. It is a landscape formation taking the form of a head wearing a feathered headdress. The head is 1000 feet wide. It is in inverse relief, formed by valleys rather than raised ground.
Medicine Hat has a semiarid continental climate, with cold, dry winters and warm to hot summers. However, the winter cold is occasionally ameliorated by mild and dry chinook winds blowing from the west, and hot summer daytime temperatures are made tolerable by low humidity and rapid cooling in the evening hours. Medicine Hat receives less precipitation annually than other cities on the Canadian prairies, making it a popular retirement city. Maximum precipitation typically occurs in the late spring and early summer.
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