October 2024 Review

It's time for our big look back at Edmonton weather for a pretty quiet October 2024.

October 2024's High of 11.5°C ends up a little above average, as our 66th warmest on record. That's just ahead of 2023, just a bit below 2021, and well below 2022's 15.5°C. The average Low of 1.8°C was the 11th warmest.

October, along with April, is one of the rare months where our average High temperatures haven't increased much over the past century. A month like January is waaaay up, and July is up a bit, but April and October are pretty flat. The Lows are all up, though.



High Temperatures

October's Highs were pretty unremarkable. We had a few pretty warm days around the 7th, but the rest of the month was mostly just a bit above average. Overall we had 19 Highs above average, and 12 below.

On average October has 2 days reach 20°C, and 2024 was right on average with 2. The warmest was 23°C on the 7th. October averages 2 Highs below freezing, and 2024 had none. The coldest was 0.4°C on Halloween.



Hot Days

We've probably seen the final 20°C day of 2024, for a total of 97. That's around average, but well below 121 in 2023 and 119 in 2022. For 30°C Highs 2024 was #2 with 16, behind 2021's record of 17.



Low Temperatures

October 2024's Lows were mostly above average, but none were close to records. Overall 25 were above average and 6 were below.

As we get further into October the chance of freezing Lows increases. 2024's first was on the 12th, and we had 9 overall. That's below October's average of 13. We had no Lows below -5°C, when the average is 3.



First Frost of Fall

October 12th was the first frost for both Blatchford & Stony Plain. Their averages are September 29th and 25th respectively. It was Stony Plain's 2nd latest on record, and Blatchford's 6th. Recently 2022 & 2023 had the records, on October 23rd & 22nd.

October 12th is the first fall frost for both Blatchford & Stony Plain. The airport's was back on September 21st, which was about 2 weeks later than its average. Campsie (100km NW) was September 9th, which was about a week early.



Warm & Cold Months

October's average High of 11.5 was 0.4°C warmer than the 20th century average, so here it's a little orange bubble. The Low of 1.8°C was 2.3°C warmer, and gets a medium bubble.



Across Canada

October 2024 was fairly warm across the country. Victoria's average High was right on their 20th century average, but every other city here was above average, with Regina at the top at 3.6°C above their October average.



Precipitation

In October Edmonton averages 19mm of precipitation. In 2024 the airport got 12mm, while Stony Plain was down at 4mm and Blatchford got a whopping 2mm.

By the end of October we average 402mm of precipitation. In 2024 the local stations are well below that, because of the dry July. The airport's 332mm is the highest, followed by 317mm at Blatchford, with the rest below that.

October 2024 was a pretty quiet month for storms, but so were 2023 & 2022.

For total precipitation for the year so far St. John's is now in the lead with nearly 1200mm. Toronto has flattened out after a wet summer, but their 1,041mm is still their most on record for January-October.

For big October storms: 

• Vancouver had 67.1mm on the 19th, and 130.1mm from the 18-20th.
• Victoria got 41mm on the 19th
• St. John's and Charlottetown had ~35mm days

November

For November, we average around 18 Highs above 0°C, but we also start seeing lows of -10°C or -15°C. -20°C even shows up sometimes, like in 2022, and 2010-2015. 2014 got down to -29.8°C.

October 2023 Review

And now, our big look back Edmonton's weather for October, 2023!

October 2023 was a little warmer than average, but not a lot. The average High of 11.9°C ranked as our 69th warmest overall, and the average Low of 0.9°C was 31st overall.



High Temperatures

The Highs for October 2023 were at the top of our 30-year range early in the month, and then at the bottom of the range near the end of the month. 

October ends up with 21 Highs above average, and 10 below.

October averages about 2 Highs which reach 20°C, and 2023 had 7. 

But it also averages 2 Highs below freezing, and 2023 had 6. 

The warmest High was 24.8°C on the 7th, and the coldest was -4.5°C on the 24th.



Hot Days

October had 7 Highs reach 20°C, which brings the total for 2023 to 121 days. That is the 3rd most on record, behind 1897 & 1898 which both had 122. 4th place was last year, with 119 in 2022. The long-term average was around 95.



Low Temperatures

October 2023 had really warm Lows for most of the month, and then a really cool week near the end. 

Overall 19 Lows were above average, and 12 were below.

On average in October we get around 14 Lows below freezing, and 2023 had 10.

But that included 7 Lows below -5°C, while the average is only 3.



First-Frost

Blatchford's first-frost-of-autumn was on October 22nd, which was the 2nd latest on record. It just missed 2022's record of October 23rd. 

The average is around the end of September. The other local stations had earlier frosts, which were closer to their averages.

Blatchford had an early final-spring-frost on April 22nd, and a very late first-fall-frost on October 22nd. 

Altogether that was 182 frost-free days in-a-row, which is the 2nd most on record, behind 184 in 1985. The average is around 145 days.



First-Frost Across Canada

By the end of October every city here had had its first autumn frost.

Vancouver & Toronto were a week or two early, while the rest were mostly a week or two late.



Warm & Cold Months

October 2023's average High was 0.3°C above the 20th century average, for a tiny, orange bubble in this chart. The average Low was 1.4°C above the 20th century average, for a medium orange bubble. March is our only below average month so far this year.



Across Canada

October 2023's Highs were cool-to-average in the west, and warm in central & eastern Canada.

That ranged from Montréal at 3.2°C warmer than their average, down to Calgary at -1.6°C colder than theirs.



Precipitation

In October we average 18.7mm of precipitation. 

2023 was a really dry one, with 3mm at Blatchford, 4.8mm at the airport, and 4.2mm in Stony Plain.

In October we average around 8 days with precipitation. In 2023 Blatchford & the airport had 4 days, and Stony Plain & Campsie had 5.

The precipitation that we did get was pretty quiet, with the biggest day on October 23rd at the airport, with a whopping 2.6mm.

By the end of October we average 402mm of precipitation for the year. This year Blatchford is bang-on average at 402.5mm, the airport is at 427mm, and Stony Plain is up at 454mm.



Precipitation Across Canada

This chart has the precipitation for 2023 for these 11 Canadian cities. Halifax is at the top near 1,300mm, and Saskatoon is at the bottom at 222mm.

For big October storms: 

• St. John's had 51mm on the 16th 
• Winnipeg had 36mm on the 3rd 
• Vancouver had 34mm on the 18th 
• Montréal had 28mm on the 7th, and 25mm on the 6th

Snow

And we got our first snow! 

October averages 7cm of snow, and in 2023 we got 2.6cm.

We didn't have any October snow in 2021 or 2022, but we did get some in every year from 2016-2020.



First Snow

Blatchford doesn't record snow anymore, but the average date of the first snow has usually been around early~mid October. So 2023's first snow on October 23 was a little late, but still pretty typical.



Snowdepth

The airport, Stony Plain & Elk Island all briefly recorded 1~2cm of snowdepth, but that was gone before Halloween.

We don't normally get "lasting" snow before Halloween, but once the calendar ticks over into November the white stuff usually starts to stick around.



Snow Across Canada

A lot of cities saw snow this October:

• Calgary topped the list with 16cm. 
• Unfortunately Saskatoon, Regina & Winnipeg don't record snowfall anymore, but they did get some. 
• And Montréal, Ottawa & St. John's also joined the club right at the end of the month.

We've started to see little blips of snowdepth in various cities. Although Edmonton usually gets lasting snow before the other cities (typically even before Winnipeg).

November

In November we average 18 days with Highs above freezing, but we also start seeing Lows of -10°C and -15°C. Last November even had 3 Lows reach -20°C, which were the first -20°C days in November since 2015.

First Autumn Frost of 2023

It finally happened: October 22nd is Blatchford's first official frost of fall 2023. 

That comes 6 months after the final frost of spring, back on April 22nd.

October 22 is Blatchford's 2nd latest first-frost-of-autumn on record. It just misses 2022's record of October 23rd. 1975 is 3rd, with October 21st.

2023 had a fairly early final-spring-frost on April 22nd, and a very late first-fall-frost on October 22nd. 

Altogether there were 182 frost-free days in-a-row, which is the 2nd most on record, behind 184 in 1985. 182 days is essentially half of the year.

2023 snuck through on a bit of a technicality though, because we did already drop all of the way down to 0.1°C on October 1st and 5th. 

Last year in 2022 things stayed above 1°C until the first frost, and 1980 & 1975 dipped down to 0.6°C.

While Blatchford's first-fall-frost was very late this year, the rest of the region was closer to average, and got caught by some of the cool nights back in September.

Across the prairies Edmonton almost always records a longer frost-free season than the other big cities. 

But this year Calgary's was 1 week later than their average, and Saskatoon, Regina & Winnipeg were all around 2 weeks late.

October 22nd is an extremely late frost for Edmonton, but in central and eastern Canada it's just average. St. John's had its first frost on October 18th, but the rest of the cities are still waiting.

This is another way of looking at how freezing Lows start to creep in during September & October. 

2022 had 5 by the end of October, and the average is around 17. 2018 had a ridiculously cold September, and had 29 freezing Lows up to Halloween.

October 2022 Review

It's time for our big look back at Edmonton's October 2022 weather.

October 2022's average High of 15.5°C ranked as 5th warmest since 1880. 1944 has the record with 16.4°C.

The average Low of 3.7°C was the 1st warmest, way ahead of 2.7°C from 1974.

August, September & October all had their warmest average Lows on record in 2022, with July as #3.

For Highs August, September & October were all top-5 (with July as a less impressive #27).



High Temperatures

October's Highs were mostly well above average, with just a few cool days from the 21st-25th. There were no new records, but 6 days were the warmest in 30 years. 

We end up with 25 days above average and 6 below.

In October we average about 2 Highs of 20°C. 2022 blew that away with 12, which tied the record for October.

October also averages 2 Highs below freezing, and 2022 had none. The coldest was 4.1°C on the 24th.



Warm Days

October 2022 had 12 Highs which reached 20°C, which tied 1923 for the record. In recent years the most had been 2006 & 2003 with 6.

For the whole year 2022 had 118 Days reach 20°C. That is the 3rd most on record, behind 1897 & 1898 which both had 122. Recently 2017 reached 111, and just getting to 100 is quite a bit.



Low Temperatures

For October 2022's Lows only 4 were below average, compared to 27 above. October 10th set a new record warmest-Low at 10.4°C.

October averages about 13 Lows below 0°C, and 2022 had 5. 

October also averages 3 Lows below -5°C. 2022 had none, which also happened in 2011, 2007, 1999, 1998.



Frost-Free Days

Blatchford & Stony Plain both set new records for the latest first frost of the fall, on October 23rd.

Blatchford's old record was October 21st in 1975, and Stony Plain's was October 9th in 2020 & 1979.



Warm & Cold Months

October 2022's average High of 15.5°C ends up 4.4°C above the 20th century average. The average Low of 3.7°C was 4.1°C warmer. They're both big orange bubbles here, following a warm September & August.



The Horserace

As winter looms 2022 has moved up to Edmonton's 4th warmest year overall, and 2°C above the 20th century average.

The Highs are the 9th warmest, and the Lows are the 4th. The red line really turned upwards at the start of August, and just kept going.

2022's summer didn't really kick-in until July, but for May 1-October 31st 2022 had the warmest average Highs & Lows on record.

Across Canada

For October across the country Edmonton, Calgary & St. John's were the most above-average for Highs & Lows. Winnipeg was back to average, after finally getting a warm~ish month in September.



Precipitation

In October we average 19mm of precipitation.

October 2022 was low, following a low September & August. Blatchford had 8.8mm, the airport 4.1mm, and Stony Plain 8.4mm.

October averages 8 days with precipitation. 

Blatchford somehow recorded 18, while the other stations were down around 8. For some reason Blatchford had lots of days with precipitation for August, September & October, but that didn't affect its precipitation totals.

By the end of October we average around 400mm of precipitation for the year.

Stony Plain is High with 436mm, while the others are a little low following the below-average August, September & October. The airport has 387mm, Blatchford has 349mm.



Precipitation Across Canada

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

Saskatoon & Regina are at the bottom. Next, Edmonton & Calgary are almost tied around 350mm. At the top Halifax is near 1200mm, and St. John's is over 1400mm.

For the big storms in October: 

• Halifax had 2 40mm+ days on the 19th & 26th. 
• St. John's & Winnipeg had 30mm+ days on the 17th & 24th.

First Snow

We didn't get snow in October.

Blatchford doesn't record snowfall anymore, but its average first snowfall used to be around mid-October, with the airport a bit earlier. 

2014, 2016, 2017 & 2018 all had September snow, which messed-up our averages. 2021's first-snow was really late at the airport, on November 14th.

This is the recent history of snowfall at the airport. Some years do get started early, but by the time we reach November the bubbles get a lot more frequent.

And this is our snowdepth throughout the winter. We almost always make it to Halloween without "lasting" snow, but after that it's game-on.

In October we average 7cm of snow, but a lot of years get none. Most of our real-winter months from November-March average around 20cm of snow, with February a little below the others at 13cm.

For the big Canadian cities the only snow so far for the winter of 2022-2023 was Calgary (ha-ha) with 10cm on the 22nd.



November

In November we average 18 days with Highs above freezing, but we start seeing Lows of -10°C and -15°C.

We haven't hit -20°C in November since 2015, and let's not talk about the -29.8°C in 2014.