Edmonton's Winters - the Good, the Bad, and the Data (Part 2)

We're back today with Edmonton's Winters - the Good, the Bad, and the Data (Part 2). Let's talk snow! 

(Our only snowfall measurement now is at the airport, which is quite a bit colder than the city. But we'll use it because it's what we've got.)





Snowfall History

Edmonton averages 125cm of snow each winter. Before the 1980s it was maybe a bit higher at around 135cm.

Most winter months average around 20cm, while February & April are lower at 13cm. October & May are pretty hit or miss, and average 6cm.

Snow is also possible in June, August & September, but those are pretty uncommon.

The airport's last June snow was 1.4cm in 2011.

For August it was 0.1cm in 2016.

And September is a little snowier, with a record 38.4cm in 2018, and smaller snowfalls in 2014 & 2004.

In terms of snowy days, November-March average 8 or 9 of them, with January peaking at 10. For April it's 5, and October is 4.

Historically our first fall snow has been around mid-October, although just the past few years are closer to the end of October.

The average final spring snowfall is around the end of April.

And so from the first snowfall of winter to the last we average right around 200 days.

So we get snowfall pretty consistently for November through April. Although some winters will have an early start, or a late end, or both.





Around Canada

Of Canada's winter cities, Edmonton's 125cm of snow (or ~110cm recently) is actually near the bottom. 

Winnipeg doesn't record anymore, but was also around 120cm. And Calgary is around 145cm.

But the east coast cities are all over 200cm, and Charlottetown is near 500cm.

For most of these cities the snow totals have stayed pretty level over the years.

Montréal is the biggest exception, falling from 320cm down to 210cm. (St. John's saw a big jump in 1940, possibly due to a station move? But it's been flat since then)

So Edmonton gets less snow than other cities, but we get it over a longer period of time.

We might go 200 days between first and last snowfalls, and Calgary is closer to 220.

But in central Canada and the east coast 150 days is more typical.

Compared to Edmonton, many of the other cities get a lot more snow over a much shorter period of time.





Big Storms

These bubbles are all of the 30cm+ storms (counting 2 consecutive days, to include snow that continues overnight).

There have only been 14 of them since 1880 at the two stations. 4 of those got to 40cm, with the largest on April 19-20 1955 with 46cm.

20cm 2-day storms only happen every few years, with the most recent March 27-28, 2025. 

For 10cm storms we'll get 1 or 2 per winter. 

And for 5cm storms it's 4~8.





Big Storms Across Canada

In 140+ years Edmonton has only had a handful of 40cm+ storms. Calgary has had a few more than that. Ottawa & Montréal got a lot before 1900, but now they're pretty rare. But Halifax still gets 1 in most winters, and Charlottetown gets a few every winter.

This is the 50cm+ 2-day storms for these cities. 

Charelottown's biggest on record was 153cm in 2004, and St. John's was close with 152cm. 

Ottawa & Halifax are both around 75cm, and Montréal's was 58cm.





Snowdepth

This shows the average and the range of our snowdepth throughout the winter.

It starts to climb around November 1st, and levels off at the end of February around 24cm. 

The big spring melt starts a week into March, and we (or at least the airport) are down to 0cm sometime in April.

Every winter is a little different though. When we do get early snow in Sep/Oct, it usually melts off. But after November 1st any snow that we get usually hangs around until spring.

The outlying stations aren't a perfect proxy for the city, but they're not bad. Back when Blatchford did measure snowdepth it's numbers were maybe a little bit lower than the airport's, but it's still pretty close.

So far the winter of 2025-2026 is off to a pretty slow start for lasting snow. 2024 waited until November 22nd, and 2023 was December 3rd. But 2021, 2016, 2015, 2011 & 2010 also all waited until mid-November or later.

For the big spring melt we're often basically down to 0cm of snowdepth by the end of March, although sometimes a late snowfall will bump it up again temporarily.

Some recent late years were 2021 on April 21st, 2018 on April 20th, 2013 on April 25, and 2011 on April 21st.

So we will usually have snow on the ground from mid-November to late-March, +/- two weeks on either end. On average that's around 130 days in-a-row. And that hasn't changed much since the 60s, and it wasn't too different between the city and the airport.





The Prairies

For comparison, Calgary is very different from us, with their frequent chinooks keeping the snowdepth low or zero for most of the winter.

Saskatoon, Regina & Winnipeg all tend to keep their snow, like Edmonton. But they also often start a few weeks after us.





Central Canada

Snowdepth in central Canada usually starts closer to the beginning of December. But where Edmonton usually peaks around 35cm, Ottawa & Quebec City will often get to 50cm, and sometimes up to 80cm or 90cm.





The East Coast

The east coast also gets started a month later than us, and gets melts throughout the winter. A lot of these years peak around 50cm. 

But St. John's got to 125cm in 2019-2020, and in 2014-2015 Moncton & Charlottetown both got above 150cm.

 



The Big Melt

In the fall Edmonton's snow gets started earlier than other cities. But for the big spring melt we're not that different. We can be snowfree by mid to late March, or we can drag into April. And that's true for a lot of places.

 

This is just a fun chart showing the full recorded history of snowdepths for a few stations. The darkest years are the ones with the highest peaks, and Charlottetown has a lot of them.





Winter Rain

And finally, it always feels surprising when it happens, but winter rain is not actually completely rare in Edmonton. 

In December-February we average around 3 rainy days. 2024-2025 had 6 of them, and 2014-2015 had 11, while a lot of others only had 1 or 2.

And that brings us to the end of Part 2 of our look at Edmonton winters. 

Edmonton's Winters - the Good, the Bad, and the Data (Part 1)

Whether you're a newcomer to Edmonton, or an oldtimer, today we hope to shed a little light on our darkest season with a little something called: Edmonton's Winters - the Good, the Bad, and the Data (Part 1).

(if you're reading this from the future, the dashboards in these big posts tend to break pretty easily.

 so an archive of the original images can be found on bluesky or mastodon.)  

November 19th is the first day of the winter when our average High drops below Freezing.

And it will stay down there until March 9th. 

That's 110 days.

Ooof.





Average Highs

Our average High bottoms-out right around New Year's at -8°C, but that only lasts for around a week. 

For most of December-February our average is more like -5°C. 

Since July we've already dropped from 25°C to 0°C, so at this point we're already most of the way there.





Average Lows

Our average Lows follow a similar path, although they bottom out in mid-January at -17°C, down from a peak of 13°C in July.

For most of December-February the average is around -14°C, and right now in the middle of November the average is still at around -9°C.





Calgary

Compared to our friends down south, the overall shapes here look pretty similar, with average temperatures being fairly flat for most of December-February.

But Edmonton's average winter Highs are typically around 5°C colder than Calgary's, and the Lows are 2°C colder.





Canada

Other winter cities (Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montréal, and let's say Halifax) look a little different. 

Edmonton's temperatures really flatten around New Year's, whereas it's more typical for temperatures to keep dropping until late-January.

Why is Edmonton (and Calgary) weird?





Warming

It will be hard to believe this once we're stuck in the middle of a deepfreeze, but Edmonton has seen phenomenal warming during January.

January's average temperatures are 8-10°C warmer than they were in the early 1970s.

And that warming is really specific to January, with a bit in February. 

Over 140+ years November's temperatures are fairly flat (slightly warmer Lows). And December has warmed up a bit more than November. But January is up by 8~10°C, and February is up by 3~5°C.

For most of recorded history, January was our coldest month by far.

But since 2010~2020 the average temperatures for December, January & February have all been really close.

So if you compare the average temperatures for a modern winter to 1880-1900, or even to 1950-1970, there's now a giant chunk of extreme cold missing from January.

Once upon a time our temperatures continued dropping until late-January, but that's gone now.

Other winter cities have also seen some January warming, but it's the largest by far in Edmonton & Calgary.

And the outlying stations around Edmonton have also seen big January jumps, even if their histories are shorter.

For a full historic perspective, this is how temperatures for each November-March compare to the 20th century average.

Since around 1980 most winters have been above average, sometimes by 4 or 5°C. On the prairies the few big exceptions were 1995, 1996, 2010 & 2013.





Extreme Cold

In a typical winter we average around 25 Lows of -20°C. So not quite a month of deepfreeze, typically spread somewhere between mid-November and mid-March.

That's down from 40-50 days historically, although recently 2010-2011 got to 48 of them, and 1995-1996 got to 52.

In those deepfreezes we average around 12 -25°C Lows (down from 25 historically), and 4 -30°C Lows (down from 12).

-35°C is pretty uncommon nowadays (we went from 2019 to 2020 without getting any), but then we got there in 2020, 2021, and January 2024 had 3 of them.

Our airport and the city are not the same.

The airport is very cold, even compared to other outlying stations. Edmonton & Stony Plain average ~25 -20°C Lows, while the airport is around 40. For -30°C Lows it's ~4 compared to 12. So, don't live at the airport.

The airport's average winter Lows are 3.5°C colder than the City and Stony Plain, and almost 2°C colder that Villeneuve. Making a trip to the airport is in some ways like making a trip to Winnipeg.

Speaking of Winnipeg... 

For -20°C Lows:

• Winnipeg, Saskatoon & Regina average around 50
• Quebec City, Edmonton & Calgary are mid-20s
• Montréal & Ottawa get a dozen. 

For -30°C Lows:

• a dozen for Winnipeg, Saskatoon & Regina
• ~3 for Quebec City, Edmonton & Calgary.

Deepfreezes

So in a winter we get around ~25 Lows of -20°C. From 1998~2018 that usually meant a few weeklong deepfreezes each winter, plus some stragglers. But 2019 gave us our longest deepfreeze in a generation. And since then we've had a bunch of other notable ones.

Last year we did a big look at our recent deepfreezes, and how they compare to history:

https://edmontonweathernerdery.blogspot.com/2025/02/edmontons-recent-epic-deepfreezes.html

(tl;dr: since 2019 we've had an unusual number of extreme deepfreezes which wouldn't have been out of place in the 1970s, but which are pretty weird today. Blame the broken jetstream.)






Winter "heat"

But Edmonton winters are not all deepfreezes.

In the deepest winter months of Dec-Feb we average around 35 above-freezing Highs (so around 40% of the winter days).

And that includes around 15 Highs which get to 5°C.

And those numbers haven't changed too much over the years.

So even in January, our historically coldest month, we typically get around 2 weeks of above-freezing Highs, which includes a week around 5°C. But January also often gets a week of deepfreeze too.

And even a century ago January was a mix of mild days and (extremely deep) deepfreezes.

So if we don't get more warm days, but January has warmed by 8-10°C, how does that work?

It's all about the temperature distributions. The top end hasn't moved too much, but a lot of the bottom end has disappeared.

Of Canada's "winter' cities, Calgary's chinooks make it the undisputed champion of mild winter days, with 53 (58%) of Dec-Feb getting above-freezing.

Edmonton, Ottawa & Montréal are around 35. Quebec City & Regina are around 20 Saskatoon & Winnipeg are around a dozen.

For 5°C winter Highs Calgary is close to 30 (33% of Dec-Feb). Edmonton is around 15. Ottawa & Montréal are around 8. The rest are typically below 5.

A problem with our temperature swings is it makes winter events tricky.

In the middle of January we can have 5°C Highs or -25°C Lows.

So for skating, icecarving, icecastles, crosscountry skiiing, fatbiking, flying canoes, etc, every few years the weather doesn't cooperate.

But bringing it all back to the beginning: Our average High is below 0°C from November 19 through March 9th.

In that time we'll probably get 3~4 weeks of deepfreeze scattered around. But we'll also get lots of mild days, with more than 40% of daily Highs above freezing.

And that brings us to the end of Part 1 of our look at Edmonton winters.

This has obviously been Edmonton-centric, but all of these dashboards are interactive, and have similar data for 17 Canadian cities.

Tomorrow we'll be back with Part 2, and a look at Snow.