Halloween 2022

Let's take a quick look back at the weather history for Halloween in Edmonton.

Recent History

In recent years the average High for Halloween is 4.8°C, and the average Low is -3.8°C.

The Highs for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2017 & 2016 were all right on average, while 2017 was a little warm at 8.3°C. Our warmest recent Halloween was 2010 with a High of 12.6°C, and 2013, 2007 & 1997 were all above 10°C.

Recent Halloweens with Highs below freezing were 2012, 2006, 2003, 1995 & 1991. 1991 was the coldest of the "recent" years with a High of -8.3°C and Low of -18.6°C, but in a second we'll take a look at the record for coldest Halloween.

For precipitation 2017 had 6.1mm, but Blatchford doesn't record whether that was snow or rain anymore. Going back to when Blatchford did record snow, we got snow on Halloween in 2003, 1999, 1994 & 1991.

Full History

The record for coldest Halloween was 1984, with a ridiculously cold High of -17.1°C and Low of -23.4°C. The 2nd-coldest Highs were only -12.2°C in 1935 & 1936. The 2nd-coldest Low is -18.6°C from 1991.

1959 has the record for Halloween precipitation, with 4.3mm of rain and 6.9cm of snow, for a combined precipitation of 11.2mm. 1882 was second with 10.2cm of snow.

Snowdepth

The bars here are the years with measurable snow depth on October 31st. (the little dots are the peak snowdepth for each winter, but those usually occur much later).

This data isn't perfect, because it doesn't start until the 1950s, Blatchford stopped collecting for a few years after 2007, and Stony Plain didn't start until the 1980s.

But with what we've got the peak time for snowy Halloweens was 2001-2006, with 4 or 5 years having snow. Outside of those years, having snow on Halloween has been pretty unusual.

This is another look at how our snowdepth builds up in the early part of the winter, and the years with darker-blue are the only ones that had snow on October 31st.

This is another look at it, but showing only the years with snow on the ground for Halloween.