April 2024 Review

It's time for our big look back at Edmonton weather for April 2024.

April (along with October) is one of our weird months where the average temperatures haven't changed much over that past century. 

2024's average High of 11.7°C was our 56th warmest on record. The Low of 0.8°C was our 21st warmest. So it was warm, but not really warm.



High Temperatures

April 2024's Highs bounced around above and below the average, but none were particularly extreme, not even the snowy April 30th. 

19 Highs were above our 30-year average, and 11 were below.

April averages:

• 2 Highs below freezing, and 2024 had 0. 
• 7 Highs of 15°C, and 2024 had 8.
• 2 Highs of 20°C, and 2024 had 0 (although the 2nd got to 19.7°C and the 23rd to 19.6°C)

Low Temperatures

April 2024's Lows were mostly just a bit above average, although the 18th's Low of -6.8°C dipped close to the bottom of our 30-year range. 

21 Lows were above average, and 9 were below.

April averages 15 below-freezing Lows, and 2024 had 10.

The coldest Low was -6.8°C on the 18th, and the warmest was 6.3°C on the 22nd.



Frost-Free Days

The average date of Blatchford's final spring frost is May 6th. 

Even with the snow on the 30th, it's official Low was only 0.1°C. So right now our latest frost was April 20th.

Recently 2023's final frost was the April 22nd, and 2019's was the 19th.



Warm & Cold Months

After a cool~ish March, April 2024 was solidly warmer than the 20th century average, and is an orange bubble here. 

The High of 11.7°C was 1°C warmer, and the Low of 0.8°C was 2.2°C warmer. 

April has has a fair number of cool, blue bubbles in recent history.



Across Canada

April 2024 was warmer than average across the country. 

Regina was at the top. Its average High of 14.6°C was 4.5°C warmer than their 20th century average.



Snow

In April we average 14cm of snow, and 2024 was a little Low, with 12cm. 

February was our only snowier-than-average month this winter. January & March were a little below average, while November & December were very low.

By the end of April we average 113cm of snowfall, and so far in 2024 we're at 73.4cm, which would be a bottom-5 year for the airport.

In May was average another 5cm of snow, but half of the time it gets none.

Across the country Edmonton's 73.4cm of snow barely passed Toronto's 67cm. 

St. John's & Charlottetown are at the top with 370cm & 347cm. 

Calgary's 192cm puts it ahead of Montréal's 173cm and Moncton's 166cm.

March 2024 was Calgary's 2nd snowiest on record with 68.4cm. They followed that with 32cm centimeters in April, which was a bit above their average of 22cm. In May they average another 9cm. 

Their total so far of 192cm would be their 10th snowiest winter.



Snowstorms

Across the country the big April snow storms were: - Montréal with 20cm on the 4th - Ottawa with 18.4cm on the 3rd & 4th - Calgary 15.2cm on the 4th & 5th, and 11.9cm on the 16th - Moncton with 14cm on the 4th Edmonton's biggest storm was 4.6cm on the 5th.



Snowdepth

For snowdepth the local stations were basically snowfree by the beginning of April, but after some mid-April storms they bounced back up to 1 or 2 cm for a few days.

Across the country Dawson City was the only city which wasn't down to 0cm snowdepth by the first week of April. But then a bunch of cities did briefly pop up again for a few days following some storms.



Precipitation

For total precipitation (rain+snow) April 2024 was a little dry. We average 26mm, and Blatchford recorded 20.3mm, the airport recorded 19mm, and Stony Plain was down at 9.7mm. But our rainy season usually starts by mid-May.

For cumulative precipitation so far in 2024 Halifax is at the top with 665mm, followed by St. John's at 511mm, and Vancouver at 507mm.

Edmonton is down at 66mm, while Calgary has 152mm.

For big April storms:

• Halifax had 54.4mm on the 12th & 13th
• Toronto had 32mm on the 3rd and 47mm on the 11th and 12th
• St. John's had 36.2mm on the 18th & 19th
• Montréal had 27mm on the 30th

Edmonton's biggest day was 12.7mm on the 30th.


May

For May we average 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.

And the airport recorded May snow in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2015...

March 2024 Review

It's time for our big look back at Edmonton weather for March 2024.

It's probably not surprising to learn that March 2024 was a little cool.

The average High of 0.7°C was our 76th warmest on record. The average Low of -9°C was 64th warmest. 

However, it was warmer than 2023 & 2020.



High Temperatures

March 2024 started cold, got pretty warm for a week or so, and then was pretty cool but not really cold.

14 Highs were above our 30-year average, and 17 were below.

March averages:

• 20 Highs above-freezing, and 2024 had 16. 
• 13 Highs of 5°C, and 2024 had 13. 
• 4 Highs of 10°C, and 2024 had 6. 

March got to 16.2°C on the 18th, making this only the 7th March since 2000 to reach 15°C.


Low Temperatures

For the Lows, March 2024 started really cold, warmed up and set two new records on the 15th and 18th, and then cooled back down to around average. 

12 Lows were above average, and 19 were below.

March averages 2~3 Lows of -20°C, and 2024 had 5. And that included -27.2°C on the 6th.

We hadn't gotten to -25°C in March since 2019, and hadn't gotten to -20°C since 2020. 

We also had 4 above-freezing Lows, when the average is around 3.



Cold Winter Days

Hopefully we've seen the end of our deepfreezes this winter. 

In a winter we average around 25 Lows of -20°C, and this winter had 19.

For -25°C Lows we average around 10, and this winter had 8. 

And we had 5 Lows of -30°C, when we average around 4.



Warm & Cold Months

March 2024's High of 0.7°C was -0.3°C colder than the 20th century average, and is a tiny blue dot here. 

The Low of -9°C was 0.5°C warmer, and is a small orange dot.

That follows a warm February and pretty average January.



Across Canada

March 2024 was cool~ish for the Alberta & Saskatchewan cities, but warm everywhere else. 

Ottawa was at the top. Their average High of 7.2°C was 5.6°C warmer than their 20th century average. 

On the other end Calgary's 0.8°C was 2°C colder than their 20th century average.



Cold Days Across Canada

At the end of March Winnipeg had 16 Lows of -20°C, when they average 37. 

That's their 2nd lowest on record, and is only the 3rd time they've had fewer than Edmonton (1955-56 & 1931-32). 

But the Alberta & Saskatchewan cities were also below their averages.



The Horserace

2023 was Edmonton's warmest year on record, but 3 months into 2024 we're only a bit warmer than our 20th century average.

With the cool January & March our Highs are the 56th warmest and the Lows are 42nd warmest, for the 45th warmest year overall.

While 2024 has had a cool start in Edmonton, for the Ontario & Quebec cities the Highs have been some of the warmest on record, and Winnipeg is top-10.



Snow

In March we average 19cm of snow, and 2024 got close with 17cm.

March averages 9 days with snow, and 2024 had 6.

By the end of March we average 99cm of snowfall, and so far in 2024 we're at 61.4cm.

We're probably not done yet, though. We average another 14cm in April, and 5cm in May.

Across the country Edmonton's 61cm is still below Toronto's 67cm. 

Charlottetown and St. John's are up at the top near 350cm. 

And Calgary's 160cm puts it well ahead of Montréal's 147cm.

In March Calgary got 68.4cm of snow, which was their 2nd snowiest March behind 70.3cm in 1998. They average another 30cm in April & May.



Snowstorms

Our biggest snowdays this March were all just 3~4cm, on the 2nd, 20th, 21st & 28th.

Across the country the big March snow storms were:

• St. John's with 72.2cm on the 7th-9th.
• Calgary with 36.3cm over 4 days from the 20-23rd, and 22cm on the 1st & 2nd.

Snowdepth

At the end of March our average snowdepth is 10cm, although a lot of years are at 0cm by that point. 

This year the airport, Stony Plain & Campsie were all snowfree by March 15th, but the late snow bumped things back up for a few days.

Around Edmonton during the winter we usually have snow on the ground for roughly 140 days in-a-row.

But 2023-2024 was a really short winter for us. Stony Plain's longest stretch with snowdepth was 21 days. And the airport's will be around 70 days.

Overall this winter our snowdepth was pretty low. It didn't really get started until mid-January, and for most stations it peaked at around 20cm in mid-March.

Across the country, the cities which still had snow on the ground on March 31st were: 

• Dawson City at 46cm 
• Quebec City at 11cm 
• Calgary at 8cm 
• Saskatoon at 7cm 
• Edmonton at 2cm

The big snowdepth cities this winter were in the east. 

• St. John's peaked at 82cm, which isn't all that unusual. 
• Halifax got to 96cm, which hadn't happened since 2016-2017. 
• Charlottetown got to 56cm and Moncton got to 45cm, which are fairly typical.

April

For April, on average we only get 3 Highs below 0°C, although 2022, 2020 & 2018 started quite cold. 

Most Aprils reach 20°C, and 2001, 2015, 2016 & 2018 all got to 25°C. 

But April still gets lots of Lows below freezing, and averages 14cm of snow.

February 2024 Review

Another interesting month, and another month-in-review - let's take a big look back at February 2024.

Even with the late deepfreeze, February 2024's average High of -0.7°C was our 27th warmest on record. The average Low of -10°C was 16th warmest.



High Temperatures

February 2024 started warm, and then spent several weeks barely above average. 

Then a brief heatwave, including a new record of 11.2°C on February 23rd. 

And then right into a deepfreeze. 

20 Highs were above our 30-year average, and 9 were below.

In February we average 11 Highs above-freezing, and 2024 had 14. February averages 4 Highs of 5°C, and 2024 had 7. 

And February had 2 Highs reach 10°C. Recently 2017 had 3, and 2016 had 2.



Warm Winter Days

For the 91 days from December-February we had 49 Highs reach 0°C (54%), which is tied for 4th most on record.

That included 19 Highs that got to 5°C (21%), and 4 at 10°C (4%).



Low Temperatures

For the Lows, February 2024 was warm to start, and then really average until the brief heatwave, followed by the brief deepfreeze. 

20 Lows were above average, and 9 were below.

February can certainly be a month of deepfreezes, averaging 6 Lows of -20°C, including 2 of -25°C. 

This year it went a little easy on us, with just 3 -20°C Lows, and the coldest was -23.5°C. 

The last time that February didn't reach -25°C was 2016.



Cold Winter Days

So far this winter we have had 14 Lows reach -20°C, when the average at the end of February is around 22.

We've had 7 -25°C Lows, while the average is around 11, and 5 -30°C Lows compared to an average of 4.



Deepfreeze Season

We're getting close to the end of our deepfreeze season, but we're not quite there yet. 

The likelihood of -20°C Lows and even -25°C Lows stays pretty high until around March 10th. After that they're still possible, but are much more rare.



Warm & Cold Months

January 2024's temperatures were pretty close to our 20th century. But February was above average, even with its little deepfreeze. The High of -0.7°C was 4.1°C warmer than the 20th century average, and the Low of -10°C was 5.2°C warmer.



Across Canada

February 2024 was fairly warm across the country, and especially in Winnipeg. Their High of -2.4°C was 7.3°C warmer than their 20th century average, and their Low of -10.5°C was 9.9°C warmer.

Winnipeg started February with 6 new records for warmest-Lows, following 3 more at the end of January. This has been their warmest start to a year on record.



Cold Days Across Canada

At the end of February Winnipeg has only had 14 Lows of -20°C, when they average 37. Regina & Saskatoon are also well below their average, along with Calgary & Edmonton.



Snow

In February we average 14cm of snow, and the late storm pushed 2024 over that to 20.9cm. This is the first time that we've had a snowier-than-average month since November 2022.

By the end of February we average 79cm of snowfall. The late storm pushed us up to 44.4cm.

Over a whole winter our average is around 120cm, but for March-May we average another 40cm.

Across the country Edmonton has finally recorded more snow than Vancouver's 37cm, but we're still below Toronto's 49cm.

Charlottetown is at the top over 320cm, and Halifax & St. John's are both getting close to 250cm.



Snowstorms

Our biggest snowday of February, and of the winter so far, was 8.4cm on February 25th.

Combined with the 26th the 2-day total was 15.8cm. 15cm+ is a pretty big storm, and some winters have more than one of those, but a lot of winters don't have any.

Our 15cm storm at the end of the month felt like a lot, but: 

• Charlottetown had 60.4cm on February 3rd, and 125cm total this month. 
• Halifax had 84cm on February 2nd-4th, and 134cm total.

Snowdepth

At the end of February we average 21cm of snowdepth. 

Late in the month Campsie and Stony Plain were at 0cm, and the airport was down to 2cm. 

But the big storm pushed Campsie to 3cm, the airport to 13cm, Stony Plain to 15cm, and Elk Island to 27cm.

On average our big spring melt starts after the first week of March.

Some years are early, and can be snowfree well before the end of March. But others like 2020 or 2018 can hang on until mid-April.

Across the country, Halifax's snowdepth got to 96cm, and St. John's reached 82cm. Charlottetown got to 58cm, Dawson City spent most of the month around 55cm, and Moncton got to 45cm.



March

March averages 20 days with Highs above freezing, and we often start to hit 10°C. It also averages about 3 -20°C Lows, though. 

 March's average snowfall is 20cm, which is pretty typical for our winter months.