December 2022 Review

It's time for our look back at the weather in Edmonton for December, 2022.

This will be a little bit shorter than our typical monthly reviews, because the upcoming 2022 Year-in-Review will cover everything else.

 

December 2022 was pretty cold. The average High of -11.5°C ranked as 127th warmest (or 16th coldest) since 1880, and tied 2021. The average Low of -19.8°C was the 126th warmest (or 17th coldest). It was below-average, and was roughly as cold as 2009, 1996, and 1984.

If we combine November & December together 2022 is still well below average, but it's also well above 1996, which had a very cold end to the year.




High Temperatures

December 2022's High temperatures spent most of the month below average. That included December 20th & 21st which set new records for the coldest Highs, and 4 more Highs were the coldest in 30 years. 

We end up with 10 Highs above average and 21 below.

In December we average about 10 Highs above freezing. In 2022 we had *0*. Since 1990 the only other month that stayed completely below 0°C was December 2010. We also had 6 Highs reach -20°C, including -28.1°C & -29.6°C on the 20th & 21st.




Low Temperatures

December 2022's Lows also spent most of the month below average, with 6 as the coldest in 30 years, on the 1st, 2nd, and 19th-22nd. 

Overall only 8 Lows were above average, compared to 23 below.

In December we average around 6 Lows of -20°C, and in 2022 we got 12. That included 3 Lows below -33°C on the 20th-22nd.




Cold Days So Far

So far this winter has had 15 Lows reach -20°C, which is the most since 1996. By this point we average around 9. 

7 Lows have reached -25°C, when our average is around 3. 

And that includes 3 Lows of -30°C. That ties last winter, although many winters have none by now.




Cold Days In-a-Row

During the coldest part of December we had 3 Lows in-a-row of -33°C, which hadn't happened since 2004. 

We're also in the middle of a streak of 34 High in-a-row below 0°C, which is the most since 2011 (winters usually only go 2~3 weeks without a thaw).




Warm & Cold Months

December joins November as another blue bubble, for a below average month. Before that June-October had been above average.

It's been quite a drastic swing from July-October which spent most of their time well above average, to November-December which have been well below average.




Across Canada

Across the country December was colder than the 20th century average in Vancouver-Winnipeg, and warmer further east. 

Edmonton was the most below-average, and Montréal was the most above-average.




Snow

In December we average 16cm of snowfall, and December 2022 was just below that with 14cm. That follows the above-average November, and 0cm in September & October.




Snowdepth

Even though December 2022 didn't have a lot of new snow, we also didn't have any melting. At this point of the winter we average around 14cm of snow on the ground, but this year the stations ranged from 22cm at Stony Plain up to 37cm at Elk Island.

This is just how our snowdepth builds up in the early part of the winter, comparing the past few years. So far 2022-2023 is a little high, but still typical enough.




Snow Across Canada

Across the country Ottawa had the snowiest December with 96cm.

Some of the big December snowstorms were:

• 33cm in Ottawa & 17cm in Montréal on the 16th
• 16cm in Vancouver on the 20th
• 13cm in Toronto on the 15th

January

In January on-average we get 12 days with Highs above freezing. But January is also our biggest month for deepfreezes, with an average of 8 Lows of -20°C. January's average snowfall is 22cm.

We'll be back later today with our multi-part 2022 Year-In-Review to take a look at some of the bigger trends for the past year.