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.
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