The Great Deepfreeze(~ish) of February 2025

In the past few years February has thrown some pretty epic deepfreezes at us - in 2019, and 2021. And now 2025 sort of joins that club.

The reason that 2025 wasn't quite as epic as the others is because it had a little bit of a warmup early on:

Things started to cool off on January 31st, then dropped again on February 1st, and didn't really get warm again until February 20th. 

But from the 5th through 8th (or even the 12th) temperatures crept up just a bit, which makes this more of a long coldsnap than an epic deepfreeze.




Lows In-a-Row

The February 2025 coldsnap ended with 20 Lows of -17°C in-a-row. That's 1 more than 2019 or 2021, and is the most since 1996.

However, for -20°C Lows in-a-row 2025 peaked at only 6. 

Recently January 2022 got to 16, February 2021 got to 15, and February 2019 got to 18. 

1950 has the record with 46.





Cold Lows

In February we average around 6 Lows of -20°C, and in 2025 we've had 12. 

That included 10 Lows that got to -25°C, when the average is 2. The coldest was 30.3°C on the 18th. 

In comparison: 

• February 2021 had 15 -20°C Lows, with 8 at -25°C, and 3 of those got to -30°C. The coldest was -33.9°C. 
• February 2019 had 19 -20°C Lows, with 16 at -25°C, and 4 got to -30°C. The coldest was -32.8°C.

Highs In-a-Row

The February 2025 coldsnap ended up with 20 Highs of -6°C in-a-row.

"Colder than -6°C" isn't super impressive, but that's the result of the less-cold week that we got in the middle of it. And 20 -6°C Highs is still the most since 1998.

For really cold days though, February 2025 only had 3 -20°C Highs in-a-row. 

Recently 2024 & 2020 both went 6 in-a-row, and 2021 went 7. 

2025 had 6 -15°C Highs in a row, when 2019, 2020 & 2021 all went to 11.



Cold Highs

February averages around 4 Highs below -15°C, and right now 2025 is at 10. 

And it averages 1 High of -20°C (although a lot of years don't have any) and 2025 has 3. That ties 2023, but 2021 had 5, and 2019 had 9.



Days Without a Melt

In the winter the longest that Edmonton typically goes without an above-freezing High is around 3 weeks. So 2025's 20 days below 0°C wasn't unusual.

2 weeks below freezing happens a lot. 

And most winters will get one 3 week stretch, like the one that we just got.

Going 4 weeks or more is unusual, but recently it happened in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2011, 2009 & 2005.

2023's 52 days was very unusual, and tied 1978 as the 3rd longest on record.



Cold Days So Far

So far this winter's 19 -20°C Lows are right on average. But unfortunately our deepfreeze season can last into early March, so we might not be done yet.

The 14 -25°C Lows that we've had so far are actually above the average of around 10.



We're Not Alone

The February 2025 deepfreeze wasn't just us. Calgary also had 20 Lows of -17°C in-a-row, which is the most since 1996.

And Saskatoon & Regina both got down to -40°C (twice for Regina), and set new records for coldest Lows on the 18th & 17th respectively.