November 2023 Review

How about that November 2023, huh? 

It was pretty mild and dry, but was it unprecedented, or merely precedented? Let's take a look...

It won't surprise anyone to hear that November 2023 was pretty warm. 

The average High of 5.3°C ranked as our 16th warmest overall, and the average Low of -3.7°C was 13th. 

Recently November 2016, 2009 & 2008 were all in the same range.



High Temperatures

November 2023's Highs were above average for almost the whole month, but not by a whole lot. 

The only really exceptionally above average days were the 17th-19th at 14°C, 11.8°C & 10.4°C.

November ends up with 28 Highs above average, and 2 (just barely) below.

November 2023 had 28 Highs above freezing, when the average is around 18. 

November also averages 8 Highs below -5°C, and 2023 had none. 

The warmest High was 14°C on the 17th, and the coldest was -1.5°C on the 30th.

By the end of November on average we have 8 Highs reach -5°C. 

2023 had none, which is unusual, but not all that uncommon. It also happened in 2021, 2015, 2009, 2008, 2004, 2000, 1987, 1981 ...



Low Temperatures

November 2023's Lows were a lot like the Highs: almost all above average, but also not super-hot.

We didn't come close to any records, or to the top of our 30-year range. 

Overall 28 Lows were above average, and 2 were below (just barely).

November averages 3 above-freezing Lows, and in 2023 we didn't actually get any. 

On average it also has 9 Lows reach -10°C, and we had 1.

Last year in 2022 we had 3 -20°C Lows in November.



Warm & Cold Months

November 2023 was pretty warm, and here it's an orange bubble. 

The average High of 5.3°C was 4.8°C above the 20th century average, and average Low of -3.7°C was 4.7°C above. So far for 2023 March is our only below average month.

Across Canada

November 2023 was pretty warm in the west, and average to cool in the east. The Highs ranged from Edmonton & Calgary at 4.8°C warmer than our 20th centruy averages, down to Halifax at at -1.8°C colder than theirs.



The Horserace

With 1 month left in the year, 2023 is still holding onto its spot as Edmonton's 3rd warmest year on record. The Highs are 5th place, and the Lows are 3rd place. Overall the average temperature is about 2.5°C warmer than our 20th century average.

Across the county 2023 is a top-5 warmest year in Edmonton, Calgary & Montréal, and top-10 in Ottawa. For the other cities it's sitting between #16 (Halifax) and #27 (Regina).



Precipitation

In November we average 20.5mm of precipitation. In 2023 we got...basically nothing? 

Blatchford and the airport recorded 0mm, while Stony Plain had 0.7mm. Of a dozen local stations, New Sarepta recorded the most with 0.9mm.

On one hand, it definitely rained downtown on November 19th. But that didn't get recorded anywhere. 

On the other hand, Blatchford also recorded 0mm of precipitation in November in 1885 (which might be accurate) and in 1886 (which is probably an error).

The super-dry November follows an extremely dry October, and a pretty dry September. 

For all 3 months Blatchford's 17.4mm was a bottom-5 year, the airport's 22.9mm was its lowest on record, and Stoney Plain's 36.9mm was bottom-10.

In November we average around 10 days with precipitation. 

In 2023 Blatchford & the airport recorded nothing (although again, the 19th definitely had rain, and there were some flakes of snow), and Stony Plain had 3 days.

This shows the precipitation events that we normally get in September-November, compared to just how quiet 2023's fall has been.

By the end of November we average 423mm of precipitation for the year. 

The dry fall follows a fairly wet summer, so right now the airport is still right on the average with 427mm. Stony Plain is still a little high with 455mm, and Blatchford is a little low with 403mm.



Precipitation Across Canada

This chart has the precipitation for 2023 for these 11 Canadian cities. Halifax is at the top over 1,400mm, and Saskatoon is at the bottom around 230mm.

All of the big cities are pretty close to average for precipitation this year. 

The most unusual one is Vancouver, which is having a roughly bottom-10 year, with 685mm when their average is closer to 1000mm.

For big November storms: 

• Halifax had 50mm on the 18th, 43.9 on the 27th & 20mm on the 22nd 
• St. John's had 43.6mm on the 28th, 27mm on the 1st & 25mm on the 8th 
• Toronto had 20mm on the 8th 
• Vancouver had 20mm on the 11th

Snow

In November we average 20cm of snow. 

In 2023 the airport recorded 0cm, which had never happened before. 

Other low-snow Novembers at the airport were: 

• 2008 1.4cm 
• 2004 1.6cm 
• 1981 0.6cm 
• 1980 0.9cm

Snowdepth

No snow means no snowdepth. 

In recent years, the latest that we'd gone without "lasting" snow on the ground was November 24th, in 2015.

But if we go a bit further back: 

• 2008 made it to December 4th 
• 2005 didn't have substantial snow until February 
• 2004 made it to December 5th 
• 2002 didn't really start until December 30th

Snow Across Canada

For cities which did get snow this November: 

• St. John's topped the list with 27cm 
• Halifax, Ottawa & Montréal were all around 10cm. 
• Calgary had 2 days for 5cm Toronto got 2cm.

Across the country Regina is the only city showing snowdepth, with 1cm. Calgary & Winnipeg (and Edmonton) all had some around Halloween, but it's gone now.

In December we average about 10 days with Highs above 0°C. 

For the Lows, about half of the time December will hit -25°C, but since 1990 there were 3 Decembers which didn't hit -20°C. 

December averages 16cm of snow.