The Great Thawlessness of 2022-2023

It took a long time, but our streak of High below freezing did eventually come to an end on January 19th.

Our run of days without a thaw stretched for 52 days from November 28th through January 18th.

52 days tied with 1977-1978 for the 3rd longest streak on record.

The only longer streaks were 67 days in 1949-1950, and the record 83 days in 1955-1956.

While our winters may sometimes feel never-ending, in most winters the longest that we go without a thaw is 2 or 3 weeks. In recent memory the longest stretches were 2010-2011 with 38 days, and the last two winters 2020-2021 & 2021-2022 went 29 & 30 days respectively.

After the really cold days in December, things were mostly fairly mild during January. We actually spent a lot of the month above average, but only by a bit, and it took until the 19th to finally reach 0°C again.

2022 Year-in-Review Part 3: Snow

And finally we have reached the end of our 2022 Year-in-Review Part 3: Snow!

• Part 1: Temperatures
• Part 2: Precipitation
• Part 3: Snow

Sometimes the dashboards in these posts will become corrupted, and so if you are reading this in the future and things no longer make sense the original charts are here:

• https://twitter.com/yegwxnerdery/status/1609716807757336577
• https://mstdn.ca/@yegwxnerdery/109616939859117782

 

How was the snow for Edmonton and other Canadian cities last year?

(the Blatchford weather station near downtown Edmonton no longer records snowfall or snowdepth, so most of the numbers today will be from the International Airport.)

 

Monthly Snow

Here we have the snow for each month (including during the summer).

2022's only very snowy month was November, with 32cm while our average is 21cm. January-March & December were really close to average, while April, May, September & October were all low.

 

Total Snow

This chart has the cumulative snow for year (it looks a little strange because it includes the summer months). We average about 120cm of snow each year, and 2022 was right on that with 119cm.

 

Snow Across Canada

For these cities across Canada Vancouver's 54cm was the lowest, then 84cm in Halifax. Edmonton is next with 119cm. Up at the top are Ottawa with 263cm and St. John's with 253cm.

 

Last & First Snowfalls

This is a comparison of the snow seasons, with Edmonton and Calgary usually starting around October 1st and lasting through May 1st. Central and Eastern Canada start a month or so later in November, and usually end in April.

 

The Spring Melt

Edmonton had a fairly early spring melt in 2022, with the snow mostly gone at most of the stations by the beginning of April, while the average is closer to mid-April.

This one is a little busy, but it shows the spring 2022 snowdepths for other cities, and both Winnipeg and St. John's hung onto their snow a little longer than Edmonton into April.

 

Fall Snow

Around Edmonton the fall snow kicked-off in the first week of November, and the cold November & December kept all of the stations high through the end of December. The average snowdepth for the end of December is 14cm, and this year the stations ranged from 22cm up to 37cm.

A busy chart again, but at the end of 2022 Ottawa's snowdepth jumped up to 53cm, but then fell quickly back to 26cm. At yearend that leaves Edmonton in the top-spot with 31cm. Winnipeg has 14cm, Regina has 11cm, and everyone else is below 10cm.

 

Snowstorms

For big, 10cm+ snowstorms 2022 Edmonton recorded 2: 10.7cm on March 3 & 4 13.2cm on November 1 & 2

Edmonton's biggest single-day snowfalls in 2022 were all in the 7~8cm range.

For really big 20cm+ storms (over 2 days): 

• Calgary had 23cm in April
• Winnipeg had 29cm in April 
• Toronto had 34cm in January
• Ottawa had 48cm in January and 36cm in December
• Montréal had 20cm in February and 31cm in December 
• St. John's had 44cm in February

The biggest single-day snowfalls were Ottawa with 48cm & 33cm, St. John's with 36cm, Toronto with 29cm, and Winnipeg with 25cm.

And that finally brings us to the end of our long look back at the weather for 2022. As always, all of these charts are interactive dashboards with data for all of these Canadian cities.

2022 Year-in-Review Part 2: Precipitation

Are you ready for our 2022 Year-in-Review Part 2: Precipitation! We will take a look at Edmonton, and other big cities across Canada.

• Part 1: Temperatures
• Part 2: Precipitation
• Part 3: Snow

Sometimes the dashboards in these posts will become corrupted, and so if you are reading this in the future and things no longer make sense the original charts are here:

• https://twitter.com/yegwxnerdery/status/1609709987978444801
• https://mstdn.ca/@yegwxnerdery/109616838192742067

 

Edmonton averages 435mm of combined precipitation (rain + snow) per year. 

In 2022 Stony Plain was a little high with 468mm, the airport was just a little low with 419mm, and Blatchford had 390mm (that's up from 266mm in 2021).

Of all of the stations in the Edmonton area Stony Plain's 468mm was the highest, while Villeneuve was the lowest with 340mm.

On a monthly basis January-April were average, May was low, June was high, July-October were a little low, November was high, and December was average.

 

Big Storms

Our peak rain season is mid-May through mid-August.

The big storm for 2022 was on June 14th with 57mm in Stony Plain, 49mm at the airport, and 41mm at Blatchford. 

For large~ish 10mm storms Blatchford had 8, the International had 11, and Stony Plain had 12.




Precipitation Across Canada

For cities across Canada the total precipitation ranged from Saskatoon just above 200mm up to St. John's near 1700mm. Edmonton & Calgary were very close around 400mm.

Winnipeg is the real standout here this year, with 766mm as its #1 most precipitation on record.

The rest of the cities are pretty typical, although Montréal & St. John's were a little high, while Toronto and Vancouver were a little low.

 

Big Storms Across Canada

These festive-looking charts show the biggest storms of the year.

St. John's had the biggest single day, with 80.6mm on September 11th. Halifax had 67mm on June 9th and September 23rd. Winnipeg had 59mm on August 15th and Ottawa had 58cm on August 8th.

Halifax & St. John's were the winners for the most big storms, each with 9 40mm+ days. Winnipeg and Ottawa each had 2. Edmonton, Regina & Montréal all had 1.

That's the end of Part 2 of our 2022 Year-in-Review. In Part 3 we will take a look at snow.

2022 Year-in-Review Part 1: Temperatures

And now, what you've all been waiting for! It's time for Part 1 of our big look back at 2022 with our Year-in-Review.

• Part 1: Temperatures
• Part 2: Precipitation
• Part 3: Snow

Sometimes the dashboards in these posts will become corrupted, and so if you are reading this in the future and things no longer make sense the original charts are here:

• https://twitter.com/yegwxnerdery/status/1609639915083698178
• https://mstdn.ca/@yegwxnerdery/109615735622274671

Warmest & Coldest Years

The big news is that Edmonton's average temperature for 2022 was the 18 warmest on record. That is not as warm as 2021 (#10), but is warmer than 2018-2020. 

April, May, November & December were the below-average months, with December as our 18th coldest on record.

At the end of October the temperatures for 2022 had climbed into the #4 spot, but the very cold November & December pushed it back down. 

At the end of the year the Highs were 30th warmest and the Lows were 20th warmest, which combined makes it the 18th warmest overall.

For the climate stripes scarf chart 2022 is a fairly dark pink. The last time that we had a blue stripe was back in 1996, at -1.7°C colder than the 20th century average.




Temperatures Across Canada

Across the country 2022 was a top-10 year for St. John's & Halifax, and top-20 for Montréal, Edmonton & Calgary. 

Winnipeg was the only city here with a cool year, ranking as its 100th warmest and -0.6°C below the 20th century average.




Warm & Cold Months

2022's temperatures were often split west/east across the country, with a cool January in central Canada, a cool April in the west, a really warm summer in the west, and then a very cold November & December in the west.

The temperatures for July 1st-October 31st were the #1 warmest on record for Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax & St. John's, and #2 for Vancouver & Saskatoon. That was followed by a November-December which was bottom 10~20 coldest in Vancouver through Regina.




High Temperatures

For 2022 we had 211 days with Highs above our 30-year average, including 5 new warmest-records in July-September. There were 154 below-average Highs, including 2 new coldest-records in December. There were lots of above-average days in January, and July-October.

2022 had 118 days with Highs that reached 20°C, which is 2nd only to 122 in 1897 & 1898. 

The number of 25°C & 30°C days was down from the record-breaking 2021...

...but in Edmonton the summer of 2022 didn't really kick-in until July. Just from July 1st onwards 2022 had 46 Highs reach 25°C, which was the most on record. And it had 11 Highs of 30°C, which tied with 2022, 1981 & 1933 for 1st place.

Across the country Edmonton and Calgary were the most unusual for 30°C days in 2022, having their 5th and 8th highest numbers on record.




Low Temperatures

For 2022 there were 212 days with Lows above average, including 11 new warmest-records in July-October. The 153 below-average Lows didn't set any new records, but 16 were the coldest in 30 years, mostly in November & December.

2022 started and (basically) ended with deepfreezes. We had 33 days with Lows which reached -20°C, while we average around 25 days. 

That included 16 Lows which reached -25°C, which ties 2021, and is above our average of around 10 days.

2022 also had 4 Lows reach -30°C, which is down from 6 in 2021.

For some trivia, this is the first time that we've had 4 years in-a-row record at least 4 Lows of -30°C since 1969-1972.

For -20°C Lows across the country 2022 was a little above average for all of these cities.




Yearly Extremes

With a warmest High of 33.8°C, and a coldest Low of -34.1°C the range of temperatures recorded in 2022 was 67.9°C. The record for a calendar year is 80.5°C, set in 1936 and 1886 (our Lows used to get a lot colder).




Frost-Free Days

The final frost of the spring was a little late on May 10th, while the first frost of fall was record-breakingly late on October 23rd. So 2022 ended up with 166 frost-free days, while our average is 142.

Across the country St. John's & Halifax also had first fall frosts which were a few weeks late, while the rest of these cities were pretty close to their averages.




Edmonton versus Calgary

And finally, a quick comparison of Edmonton & Calgary temperatures for 2022.

The two cities tend to track fairly closely to each other, except that sometimes a Chinook really hits Calgary. We saw that on December 24th & 25th with Calgary's Highs 18°C warmer than Edmonton.

That's the end of Part 1 of our 2022 Year-in-Review. Part 2 will look at precipitation, and part 3 will be all about snow.

December 2022 Review

It's time for our look back at the weather in Edmonton for December, 2022.

This will be a little bit shorter than our typical monthly reviews, because the upcoming 2022 Year-in-Review will cover everything else.

 

December 2022 was pretty cold. The average High of -11.5°C ranked as 127th warmest (or 16th coldest) since 1880, and tied 2021. The average Low of -19.8°C was the 126th warmest (or 17th coldest). It was below-average, and was roughly as cold as 2009, 1996, and 1984.

If we combine November & December together 2022 is still well below average, but it's also well above 1996, which had a very cold end to the year.




High Temperatures

December 2022's High temperatures spent most of the month below average. That included December 20th & 21st which set new records for the coldest Highs, and 4 more Highs were the coldest in 30 years. 

We end up with 10 Highs above average and 21 below.

In December we average about 10 Highs above freezing. In 2022 we had *0*. Since 1990 the only other month that stayed completely below 0°C was December 2010. We also had 6 Highs reach -20°C, including -28.1°C & -29.6°C on the 20th & 21st.




Low Temperatures

December 2022's Lows also spent most of the month below average, with 6 as the coldest in 30 years, on the 1st, 2nd, and 19th-22nd. 

Overall only 8 Lows were above average, compared to 23 below.

In December we average around 6 Lows of -20°C, and in 2022 we got 12. That included 3 Lows below -33°C on the 20th-22nd.




Cold Days So Far

So far this winter has had 15 Lows reach -20°C, which is the most since 1996. By this point we average around 9. 

7 Lows have reached -25°C, when our average is around 3. 

And that includes 3 Lows of -30°C. That ties last winter, although many winters have none by now.




Cold Days In-a-Row

During the coldest part of December we had 3 Lows in-a-row of -33°C, which hadn't happened since 2004. 

We're also in the middle of a streak of 34 High in-a-row below 0°C, which is the most since 2011 (winters usually only go 2~3 weeks without a thaw).




Warm & Cold Months

December joins November as another blue bubble, for a below average month. Before that June-October had been above average.

It's been quite a drastic swing from July-October which spent most of their time well above average, to November-December which have been well below average.




Across Canada

Across the country December was colder than the 20th century average in Vancouver-Winnipeg, and warmer further east. 

Edmonton was the most below-average, and Montréal was the most above-average.




Snow

In December we average 16cm of snowfall, and December 2022 was just below that with 14cm. That follows the above-average November, and 0cm in September & October.




Snowdepth

Even though December 2022 didn't have a lot of new snow, we also didn't have any melting. At this point of the winter we average around 14cm of snow on the ground, but this year the stations ranged from 22cm at Stony Plain up to 37cm at Elk Island.

This is just how our snowdepth builds up in the early part of the winter, comparing the past few years. So far 2022-2023 is a little high, but still typical enough.




Snow Across Canada

Across the country Ottawa had the snowiest December with 96cm.

Some of the big December snowstorms were:

• 33cm in Ottawa & 17cm in Montréal on the 16th
• 16cm in Vancouver on the 20th
• 13cm in Toronto on the 15th

January

In January on-average we get 12 days with Highs above freezing. But January is also our biggest month for deepfreezes, with an average of 8 Lows of -20°C. January's average snowfall is 22cm.

We'll be back later today with our multi-part 2022 Year-In-Review to take a look at some of the bigger trends for the past year.