October 2022 Review

It's time for our big look back at Edmonton's October 2022 weather.

October 2022's average High of 15.5°C ranked as 5th warmest since 1880. 1944 has the record with 16.4°C.

The average Low of 3.7°C was the 1st warmest, way ahead of 2.7°C from 1974.

August, September & October all had their warmest average Lows on record in 2022, with July as #3.

For Highs August, September & October were all top-5 (with July as a less impressive #27).



High Temperatures

October's Highs were mostly well above average, with just a few cool days from the 21st-25th. There were no new records, but 6 days were the warmest in 30 years. 

We end up with 25 days above average and 6 below.

In October we average about 2 Highs of 20°C. 2022 blew that away with 12, which tied the record for October.

October also averages 2 Highs below freezing, and 2022 had none. The coldest was 4.1°C on the 24th.



Warm Days

October 2022 had 12 Highs which reached 20°C, which tied 1923 for the record. In recent years the most had been 2006 & 2003 with 6.

For the whole year 2022 had 118 Days reach 20°C. That is the 3rd most on record, behind 1897 & 1898 which both had 122. Recently 2017 reached 111, and just getting to 100 is quite a bit.



Low Temperatures

For October 2022's Lows only 4 were below average, compared to 27 above. October 10th set a new record warmest-Low at 10.4°C.

October averages about 13 Lows below 0°C, and 2022 had 5. 

October also averages 3 Lows below -5°C. 2022 had none, which also happened in 2011, 2007, 1999, 1998.



Frost-Free Days

Blatchford & Stony Plain both set new records for the latest first frost of the fall, on October 23rd.

Blatchford's old record was October 21st in 1975, and Stony Plain's was October 9th in 2020 & 1979.



Warm & Cold Months

October 2022's average High of 15.5°C ends up 4.4°C above the 20th century average. The average Low of 3.7°C was 4.1°C warmer. They're both big orange bubbles here, following a warm September & August.



The Horserace

As winter looms 2022 has moved up to Edmonton's 4th warmest year overall, and 2°C above the 20th century average.

The Highs are the 9th warmest, and the Lows are the 4th. The red line really turned upwards at the start of August, and just kept going.

2022's summer didn't really kick-in until July, but for May 1-October 31st 2022 had the warmest average Highs & Lows on record.

Across Canada

For October across the country Edmonton, Calgary & St. John's were the most above-average for Highs & Lows. Winnipeg was back to average, after finally getting a warm~ish month in September.



Precipitation

In October we average 19mm of precipitation.

October 2022 was low, following a low September & August. Blatchford had 8.8mm, the airport 4.1mm, and Stony Plain 8.4mm.

October averages 8 days with precipitation. 

Blatchford somehow recorded 18, while the other stations were down around 8. For some reason Blatchford had lots of days with precipitation for August, September & October, but that didn't affect its precipitation totals.

By the end of October we average around 400mm of precipitation for the year.

Stony Plain is High with 436mm, while the others are a little low following the below-average August, September & October. The airport has 387mm, Blatchford has 349mm.



Precipitation Across Canada

This messy chart has 2022's precipitation for 11 cities.

Saskatoon & Regina are at the bottom. Next, Edmonton & Calgary are almost tied around 350mm. At the top Halifax is near 1200mm, and St. John's is over 1400mm.

For the big storms in October: 

• Halifax had 2 40mm+ days on the 19th & 26th. 
• St. John's & Winnipeg had 30mm+ days on the 17th & 24th.

First Snow

We didn't get snow in October.

Blatchford doesn't record snowfall anymore, but its average first snowfall used to be around mid-October, with the airport a bit earlier. 

2014, 2016, 2017 & 2018 all had September snow, which messed-up our averages. 2021's first-snow was really late at the airport, on November 14th.

This is the recent history of snowfall at the airport. Some years do get started early, but by the time we reach November the bubbles get a lot more frequent.

And this is our snowdepth throughout the winter. We almost always make it to Halloween without "lasting" snow, but after that it's game-on.

In October we average 7cm of snow, but a lot of years get none. Most of our real-winter months from November-March average around 20cm of snow, with February a little below the others at 13cm.

For the big Canadian cities the only snow so far for the winter of 2022-2023 was Calgary (ha-ha) with 10cm on the 22nd.



November

In November we average 18 days with Highs above freezing, but we start seeing Lows of -10°C and -15°C.

We haven't hit -20°C in November since 2015, and let's not talk about the -29.8°C in 2014.