2020/12/31

December 2020 Review / January 2021 Preview

Today we are taking a quick look back at Edmonton's weather for December, 2020. This will be a little bit shorter than the typical months-in-review because a lot of things will be covered in the 2020 Year-in-Review Spectacular instead.


High Temperatures

December 2020 started warm, cooled-off for a week in the middle, warmed-up again for a week around Christmas, and then finished things a little bit above average. We didn't set any new records, although the start of the month was right up at the top of our 30-year range. For the month as a whole 23 Highs were above the 30-year average and 8 were below.

It always seems surprising, but in December Edmonton averages about 10 days with Highs above freezing (which show up here as the pink squares). Some years are well below that: 2012 had 3, 2009 had 1, and 2010 had 0. 

December 2020 had 17 Highs above freezing, and that ties 2017 but is below the 19 in 2011 or the 23 in 1999. 2020 also had 10 Highs which broke 5°C, and December only averages 3 of those. 2020's 10 matches 2011 and 1997 for the most 5°C Highs in recent years. 2020 did not break 10°C though, which happened in 2017, 2014, 1999 & 1997.

The coldest High was -17.9°C on December 13th, and about one third of the time December doesn't have any Highs below -15°C.


Low Temperatures

The Lows looked a lot like the Highs, with a warm start, slightly cool middle, warm Christmas, and slightly above-average ending. 24 Lows were above the 30-year and 7 were below.

The first -20°C Low of the winter of 2020-2021 was on December 18th at -20.5°C. On average December has 4~5 below -20°C but this year it was just the one.


December Through History

December 2020 ended up as a warm December. The average High of 0.4°C ranks as the 11th warmest since 1880, with the average Low of -8.9°C as the 14th warmest. In recent years Decembers 1999, 1997 and 2011 were all warmer, ranking #1-3 respectively for Highs.


December 2020's Mean temperatures (the average of the Highs & Lows) was 6°C warmer than the 20th Century average for December. That makes it the most above-average month of 2020, with February as the next highest at 4.3°C above average. 

December being 6°C above-average is pretty unusual, because since 2000 only the 13 months have been that far above average. 6 of those were Januarys (including January 2001 at 10.8°C above average), 2 were Februarys, 3 were Marches, and December 2011 also came in at 7.3°C.


Snowfall

The International Airport recorded 3.4cm of snow in December 2020, which puts it in the bottom-5 leasts snowy Decembers for the airport.


Snowdepth

We had a few really warm days in December 2020, and the snowdepth at the International fell from 28cm down to around 17cm. Blatchford's numbers did not see as signifiant a drop, spending most of the month in the 15-17cm range. The average snowdepth for the end of December is about 14cm, so 2020 had been High for November-December, but the average has finally caught up with what is currently on the ground.


January Temperatures

In January on-average we get 12 days with Highs above freezing. Since 2000 there have been some low years like 2005 with only 5, but there are other years that have lots of "warm" days like 2001 with 25, 2012 with 17 and 2014 with 16. Recently 2020 had 13, 2019 had 14, and 2018 only had 10.

January is also our biggest month for deepfreezes, though. We average 8 Lows of -20°C or colder, and 3 of -25°C. The last time that January didn't have any Lows hit -20°C was back in 2006. And last year in 2020 we had a short but extremely cold deepfreeze, with January 15th dropping all the way down to -37.6°C. Since 2000 the only Januarys to cross the -35°C mark were 2020, 2008 and 2004.

2020/12/30

New Year's 2020

Ready to test your memory of New Year's temperatures?


New Year's Eve Temperature History

Edmonton's average temperatures for New Year's Eve are an average High of -7.6°C and a Low of -15.6°C. But looking at the history we are rarely on the average, with most years bouncing between really "warm" or really cold. 

2019 was very warm with a High of 6.1°C and Low of -6.6°C, 2018 actually was quite close to the average, and 2017 was very cold with a High of only -22.6°C and a Low way down at 28.2°C.

Here are the Highs going back to 2000:

Since 2000 we have had 4 New Year's Eves with Highs above freezing: 2012, 2014, 2015 & 2019 (shown in pink). Before that though you need to go back to 1997 to find another one.

This chart can be switched to show the Lows, and since 2000 we have had 6 New Year's Eves with Lows below -20°C, plus another 3 at -18°C. The coldest was also the most recent, in 2017 at -28.2°C.


New Year's Day Temperature History

New Year's Day's average are close to New Year's Eve's, with a High of -7.2°C and Low of -15.9°C.

2020 and 2019 were both on the warm side of things with Highs of 3.8°C and 2.9°C respectively. 2018's Low was way down at -27.6°C, but it's High of -7.9°C was close to average, and close to 2017's -8.8°C.

The last time that we had a New Year's Day with a really cold High was 2009 at -21.7°C, and 2010 was at -16.6°C.

Since 2010 we have had 5 New Year's Days with Highs above freezing: 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 & 2020. Before that you need to go back to 2001 to find another one, and then to 1992.

This chart can also be switched to show the Lows, and since 2000 we have had 6 New Year's Days with Lows below -20°C: 2002, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2014 & 2018. The coldest was also the most recent, in 2018 at -27.6°C.

2020/12/24

Christmas Eve & Day 2020

Today we will take a quick look at the history of Edmonton's temperatures for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.


December High Temperatures

In this chart each box shows the High temperature for a day in December, going back to 1990. It's highlighted to make the 24th and 25th stand out. Pink boxes had Highs above freezing while blue boxes were below. Is it surprising to see so many pink boxes?

Just since 2000 Dec 24th's High has been above freezing 7 other times: 2003-2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014. And 2021 marks another one.

Since 2000 December 25th's High has been above freezing 9 times: 2001-2007, 2011, 2013.

So warm Christmases aren't unheard of, although we hadn't had one since (way) back in 2013.


December 24th History

Here is the full history of temperatures and precipitation for December 24th.

The record High of 9.9°C was recorded in 1999, and 2020 comes in as #2.

The record warmest Low of 2.3°C was in 1989, and 2020 ranked #9th at -2.3°C.

The coldest December 24th temperatures were both in the first year of records, with a High of -30.1°C and a Low of -41.7°C in 1880.


December 25th History

Edmonton's warmest Christmas Day was 1987 at 8.9°C.

For 2020 the High of 1.6°C ranked as Edmonton's 30th warmest, with the Low of -7.2°C as the 29th warmest.

From 1985-2000 there were actually a bunch of warm Christmases (which I have no particular memory) of: 1985 at 8.1°C, 1987 at 8.9°C, 1989 at 7.4°C, 1993 at 6.8°C, 1997 at 6.6°C, and 1999 at 8.3°C. Since 2000 Christmas Day has only broken the 5°C mark twice: 2005 at 6.3°C and 2011 at 6.7°C.

For recent cold Christmases 2008, 2012, 2015, 2016 & 2017 all had Lows below -20°C, with 2017 the coldest at -26.7°C. 2012 was close with a Low of -26.3°C, and a High of only -20.6°C.

The coldest Christmases on record were 1917 with a record High of -28.9°C and a Low of -32.2°C, and 1880 with a High of -24.4°C and a record Low of -39.8°C.