Family Day

Here is the history of temperatures for the Family Day long weekend, going back to when it was first introduced in Alberta in 1990.

Temperatures

When Family Day was introduced I remember people asking: "Why would anyone want a holiday, in February, in Alberta?!?"

And if we look at that very first Family Day in 1990, it's almost like the weather was trying to prove a point: the temperature swung from a low of -31.2°C on the Saturday up to a balmy high of 2.6°C for the holiday Monday. After a weekend deepfreeze, I'm sure that people were more than happy to have the extra Monday off.

Since then the Family Day weekend has generally been pretty warm. The average high is -2°C, and the average low is -11°C. Of the 27 years shown here, there were only 9 which didn't have any days above 0°C, and also only 9 that had even one low below -15°C.

The warmest-overall Family Day weekend was last year, with all three days between 5-7°C, and warm overnight lows as well. To find the last "cold" family day weekend you have to go back to 2011, and even for that year the holiday Monday warmed up to just below freezing. The coldest-overall Family Day weekend was back in 1994, and it's the only Family Day weekend that was a complete deepfreeze, with all three days down around the -20°C mark.

Right now the forecast for this year is calling for highs right around freezing, and lows maybe down to about -10°C. That would make 2017 pretty similar to 2012, and one of the less-warm (although not actually cold) Family Day weekends. But after this past week, it'll be really tough to actually complain about the weather.

Personally, I tend to think of Family Day as always being a great time for winter bikerides through the river valley, and spots like Hawrelak Park are usually packed. Although this year I am expecting lots of ice.

Precipitation

In terms of precipitation, 2015 is probably the most interesting story, with 7.4mm of rain on the Saturday, and then just under 1cm of snow on the Monday. Beyond that, we might get some snow, but for the most part it hasn't been very much. For the whole history of Family Day, 1992, 1996 and 2003 were the only years with more than 5cm of snow during the weekend.