April 2022 Review

April 2022 is over. Was it a warm month, or cold, or just average? And what about all of that snow (and a bit of rain)? Let's take a look.

April 2022 was a little chilly. The average High of 8.2°C ranked as 110th warmest since 1881. That was about 1.5°C cooler than our recent average, but close to 2020, 2018 and 2017. 

The average Low of -2.1°C was 93rd warmest, and was warmer than 2020 or 2018.

 

High Temperatures

April 2022 ended up with 13 Highs above average and 17 below. The coldsnap from the 10th to the 17th was what really dragged the average High down. But just before that we'd hit an unseasonably warm 22.6°C on April 8th.

April averages about 2 High below freezing, and this year we had 5. The first week of April can often have cold days, but in 2022 they were closer to mid-month. 

April also averages 2 Highs of 20°C, and this year we had 1: the early 22.6°C on the 8th.

 

Low Temperatures

For the Low temperatures April had 10 days above average and 20 below. The 11th-14th were near the bottom of our 30-year range, and the rest was just a bit below average.

April averages about 14 Lows below freezing, and 2022 had 18. The coldest Lows were the 12th-14th, all between -10.8°C and -11.7°C, and the warmest was 5.4°C on the 8th.

 

Frost-free Days

Believe it or not, we are moving into the realm of frost-free nights. 

Blatchford's average final frost is May 6th, so half of the time it will be earlier, and the other half will be later. Stony Plain's is May 11th, and the airport's is May 24th.

This is the recent history of freezing Lows in May at Blatchford. Years like 2020, 2018, 2017, 2012 and 2011 were frost-free. But 2021 and 2009 snuck in with late frosts after the 20th.

 

Warm & Cold Months

The cool April follows a warm January-March, cool December, and warm November. 

 April has a lot of blue bubbles in this chart because April and October are our two months which have seen the least warming over the past century.

 

Across Canada

Across the country April 2022 was below average in the west, and a bit above average centrally and in the east. 

Winnipeg still can't catch a break, with a really cold April, and a below-average streak going back to December.

Surprisingly, at the end of April Edmonton holds the top spot for warmest day of 2022 for these 11 cities. So far in 2022 only Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton have broken the 20°C mark, with Edmonton's 22.6°C on April 8th at the top.

 

Precipitation

For total precipitation (rain+snow) April averages 27mm. In 2022 the airport had 23.9mm, Blatchford had 25.1mm, and Stony Plain was up at 34.7mm.

For 2022 so far Blatchford has recorded 87mm of precipitation, the airport has 89mm, and Stony Plain has 93mm. The average of around 80mm for this time of year, so we are just a bit above that.

This messy chart has 2022's precipitation for 11 cities.

Saskatoon and Regina are below 40mm. Calgary and Edmonton are next at around 80mm. At the upper end Montréal and Vancouver are around 400mm, Halifax is close to 600mm, and St. John's is over 700mm.

 

Winnipeg Precipitation

Talking about Winnipeg again, they just had 118.2mm of precipitation in April, making it their 2nd highest April behind 143.3mm in 1896.

 

Snowfall

In April we average 14cm of snowfall, and April 2022 was a tiny bit low with 11.5cm.

Over the whole winter November was low, December was pretty high, and January-April were all pretty close to average.

For the winter so far we have had 120.3cm of snow, which is just below our yearly average of 121cm.

Recently 2020-2021 had 82.5cm, 2019-2020 had 128cm, and 2018-2019 was up at 160.6cm.

But our snow season isn't necessarily over yet. 2021, 2020 and 2019 all had snow after May 1st, while 2018, 2017 and 2016 were all done. May averages another 5cm, but it is snowfree about half of the time.

 

April Snow

These 8 Canadian cities all got snow this April. 

Winnipeg and Calgary were both way up at 43cm. Montréal had 20cm. Edmonton, Halifax and St. John's were around 11-15cm. And Toronto got 9cm and Ottawa got 8cm.

 

Snow Across Canada

Another messy chart, with the total snow for all of these cities this winter. Edmonton is the 3rd lowest, ahead of Vancouver and Halifax. Winnipeg has the 2nd most with 215cm, behind St. John's with 277cm.

Winnipeg is the big story again, with 215cm in 2022 as their 3rd snowiest winter on record. 

Calgary had been having a very low-snow winter, but the 43cm of snow in April pushed them closer to their typical range.

 

May Temperatures

For May, we should probably see a week or two of days above 20°C. About a quarter of the time our final frost is in April, but more typically May has a handful of frosty nights.