February 2021 Review

Today we will take a look back at February 2021. It was definitely a cold February, but it wasn't as cold February 2019, and so we will be doing some comparisons between the two.

Let's start with a look back at the winter so far:

Here are the Low temperatures going back to November 2020.

• The middle of November was a little cool, but then things warmed up for a few weeks.
• In mid-December we had one cool week, with December 18th getting all the way down to -20.5°C.
• Then the temperatures jumped back up above average and hung out there for about a month until January 22nd.
• Starting on January 23rd the temperatures dropped below the average, with the Lows hanging out around -20°C until February 5th.
• On February 6th the real deepfreeze kicked in, with the Low hitting -33.9°C on February 7th, and the temperatures staying near the bottom of our 30-year range until things finally warmed up again on February 18th.

So before this coldsnap the winter had been pretty mild, with only a single -20°C Low. But things cooled off in the last week of January, and the deepfreeze really hit in the first week of February. After spending 35 days above-average from December 19th through January 22nd, we then spent 27 days below average from January 23rd through February 18th.

February High Temperatures

Here are the High temperatures for February.

During the coldest part of the deepfreeze we had 6 days with their coldest-in-30-years Highs. Of those February 10th was the coldest, hitting -24.9°C.

February 10th also came closest to breaking an all-time record, but that's partly because February 10th's record -26.1°C from 1922 is actually a little warm. The record coldest-High a week earlier on February 3rd is -36.7°C from 1893.

Once things finally did warm up again we got close to 30-year-warmest Highs on February 20-22, but they were still well below the records which are all above 10°C.

On average in February we get 11 days with Highs of 0°C or warmer, and those show up here as the pick squares. In February 2021 we only had 7 Highs hit 0°C, and that's low. It matches 2018, and it was more than the 3 that we had in 2014, or the 1 warm day in February 2019.

We also had 5 Highs of -20°C or colder. That's a lot, because we average about 1 in February, and most Februarys don't have any. Since 2000 there were 8 in 2019 (again), 3 in 2011, and 1 in 2008 & 2006.

February Low Temperatures

For February 2021's Low temperatures we only had 2 coldest-in-30-years Lows, but we were right near the bottom of our 30-year range from February 6th through 17th.

On-average in February we will have about 6 Lows hit -20°C, including maybe 2 at -25°C. 

In February 2021 we were much colder than average, with 15 Lows at -20°C, including 8 at -25°C and 3 at -30°C. But that was still a long way from February 2019, which had 21 Lows hit -20°C, including 16 at -25C and 3 at -30°C. (...although, 2021's coldsnap did extend back to January, while 2019's was all-February).

One other notable item is that February 22nd's Low was 0.3°C, and since 2000 there have only been 8 other above-freezing Lows in February. February 2017 was the big year with 4 of them.

Cold Days So Far...

At the end of February we have had 22 Lows hit -20°C, which is pretty close to average. That has included 8 Lows -25°C, which is also right on the average. Our 3 Lows at -30°C is a little high, because we average about 1, and many years have none. 

For some trivia, the last 4 winters have all hit -30°C at least 3 times: 3 times in 2017-2018 and 2020-2021 (so far), and 4 times in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The last time that we had 4 consecutive winters which hit -30°C 3 times was (wait for it...) in 1972. This is a very specific piece of trivia though, because 2007-2012 had 5 winters which all had at least 2 -30°C Lows. And 1995-1998 had 26 Lows of -30°C crammed into 3 winters.

Unfortunately our deepfreeze-season isn't quite over yet. Between now and the end of the winter we still average around 3 more Lows of -20°C. Those become much less likely after mid-March, although last year on April 2nd 2020 we had our first -20°C in April since the 1980s.    

Days in a Row

The January-February coldsnap felt like it lasted forever, but how did it compare to others?

• We went 29 days without a High hitting 0°C (shown above), and that was the longest since 38 days in 2011.
• We had 11 Highs below -15°C in-a-row, which also happened in 2020 and 2019.
• We had 4 Highs below -20°C in-a-row, while in January 2020 we had 6.

And for the Lows?

• We had 27 Lows in-a-row below -16°C, which was the most since 1982 with 30.
• We had 15 Lows below -20°C, and that's a lot, but is still less than the 18 in 2019.
• We had 6 -25°C Lows, while in 2020 we had 7, and 2019 we had 9.

Warm and Cold Months

On our history of recent months February 2021 shows up as a large, blue bubble. It's not as large as the bubble for the very cold February of 2019, but it is about the same as February 2014.

For January there is a long string of orange bubbles, because our modern Januarys are almost always warmer than the 20th century average for January. But February still flip-flops, including 3 pretty cold Februarys in 2014, 2019 and now 2021.

After a few cold Februarys in the past few years, our average temperatures for February have actually fallen a bit from their peak around 2006. From about 1995-2010 all of our February's were fairly "mild" which is why the average for those years was so high, but after that things started to bounce around. 

For February 2021 the average High of -9.5°C ranked as the 19th coldest since 1881, and the average Low of -18.8°C was the 35th coldest.

February 2021 Across the Canada

So we have seen that February 2021 was cold in Edmonton, but it was also below-average across the West and even to Toronto.

February 2021's large, blue bubbles are still quite a bit smaller than the blue bubbles for February 2019, on the left side of the chart. That was a much colder month on the prairies, and was cold across the entire country. For the prairies February 2021 was around ~5°C below the 20th century average, while February 2019 was ~10°C below.

Snow

On average in February we get 14cm of snow, and 2021 was just below that at 13.3cm. That follows a low January, really low December, and a pretty high November.

For the winter so far we are at 62.8cm, which is below average, and only about halfway to our yearly average of 125cm. In March, April and May we average another 30cm of snow, so we will need to wait to see where things end up.

Looking across the country, Edmonton's snowfall total so far for the winter of 2020-2021 is below all of these other cities, except Vancouver (predictably). St. John's is way up at 220cm, but their average for a whole winter is closer to 350cm.

Snowdepth

Snowdepth is not Environment Canada's most reliable measurement, but at the start of February both of Edmonton's stations jumped up a bit, and then they both dipped back down at the end of the month. At the end of February our average snowdepth is around 22cm, and in 2021 both Blatchford and the International are below that. 

On average our snowdepth really starts dropping around March 10th, so theoretically the start of the big melt might be about a week away.

Looking across the country, after spending most of the winter in the lead Edmonton's snowdepth is now actually below Ottawa, Montreal and St. John's.

March Temperatures

As for March, it averages 20 days with Highs above freezing. That has ranged from 2002 with 8 and 2011 with 11, up to 2010 and 2016 with 29. Last year had 18. 

But March can also have a fair number of cold days. The past 4 Marches have all hit -20°C at least once, and March 2019 had 3 Lows hit -25°C. On average March has about 3 -20°C Lows, but about half of the time there are none.

The average snowfall in March is around 20cm, which is pretty typical for all of our winter months.