May 2023 Review

Let's take a look back at the weather for a record-breaking May 2023 in Edmonton.

May 2023 was our #1 warmest May on record, even with all of the smoke. The average High of 23.6°C beat 22.3°C from 2018 & 1897. The average Low of 10.7°C beat 9.1°C from 2018.

...in the past 12 months we have had: #1 warmest May on record #1 warmest October #2 warmest September #1 warmest August #5 warmest July (and in the middle of all that, our 18th coldest December)



High Temperatures

May 2023 started with a heatwave, and new record Highs on the 1st, 3rd & 4th. After that things weren't quite so exciting, but 6 other days had their warmest Highs in 30 years. Overall only 1 High was below average (just barely) with 18.6°C on the 25th.

May 2023 was hot. On average May has 10 days reach 20°C, but 2023 had 24 of them. 12 days reached 25°C, which was just below 13 in 2018. And that included 30°C on May 3rd, and 30.8°C on May 4th.



Hot Days

For hot days up to the end of May, 2023 has: 25 20°C days, which ties for 6th most 12 25°C days, which ties for 2nd, and is behind 2018 with 14 6 28°C days, which ties for 2nd most 2 30°C days, although 1986, 1936 & 1928 all had 4.



Low Temperatures

For May 2023's Lows we set 7 new warmest-records, on the 2nd through 5th, and the 14th through 16th. There were only 2 below-average (just barely) Lows, with 4.5°C on the 18th and 7.1°C on the 24th.

In May we average around 2 frosts. 2023 had none. 4.5°C on the 18th was the closest that we came to a frost, and that was the only Low below 5°C.



Final Frost

Blatchford's average final spring frost is May 6th, and 2023 was two weeks early on April 22nd. Stony Plain was April 26th, compared to their average of May 10th. And right now the Airport's final frost on April 29th is its earliest on record, and almost a month early.

Calgary and Saskatoon were both frost-free in May 2023. For Calgary April 26th will set a new record for its eariest final frost, nearly a week ahead of May 2nd in 2018 & 2013. For Saskatoon April 30th is its earliest since 1926.



Warm & Cold Months

May 2023 was 6°C warmer than the 20th century average, so here it is shown as a big, orange bubble. May is a pretty variable month for us, with lots of blue bubbles, although 2018 was another really warm recent May.

Who knows what the rest of the summer will bring, but after the very warm May of 2018 (2nd warmest) the rest of that summer stayed very warm...until smoke rolled in in mid-August, and hung around for weeks. That was followed by our 3rd coldest September on record.



Across Canada

Across the country May 2023 was well above average in the west, while east of Winnipeg things were closer to average. Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon & Winnipeg were all in the range of 4~5°C above their averages, and Edmonton was the most above-average at over 6°C.

May 2023's average Highs were #1 in Edmonton, #2 in Calgary, #3 in Saskatoon & Winnipeg, and around top-10 for Vancouver & Regina. The Lows were #1 in Edmonton & Calgary, #2 in Saskatoon & Regina, #4 in Winnipeg, and #9 in Vancouver.



Snow

None of these cities recorded snow in May 2023. Edmonton finishes the winter with 74.7cm, which is well below our average of 120cm, and less than half of Calgary's 159.4cm. Ottawa's 329.5cm was their 6th most on record.



Precipitation

In May we average 49mm of Precipitation. In 2023 Stony Plain was over that with 66mm, while Blatchord only had 36mm, and the airport was down at 21mm.

By the end of May we average 126mm or Precipitation. Of the local stations Stony Plain is the highest with 99mm. The airport and Blatchford are down around 55mm

In May we usually start to see some big summer storms (the big bubbles here). May 2023 was pretty quiet for Blatchford and the airport, but Stony Plain recorded 25mm on May 7th and 24mm on May 22nd.



Precipitation Across Canada

For May 2023 St. John's was the precipitation leader, with 103mm. The biggest storms were 42.3mm in Halifax on May 1st, and 36.3mm in Saskatoon on May 24th.

For total precipitation for 2023 so far the leader is Halifax, with 565mm. The prairie cities are all down around 100mm. And everyone else is sitting between 350-450mm.



May

In June usually about half of the Highs are above 20°C, with maybe a week above 25°C. The last time that Blatchford had a June frost was 1942. But we've had snow in June in 2011, 1967, 1922 and 1888.