October 2023 Review

And now, our big look back Edmonton's weather for October, 2023!

October 2023 was a little warmer than average, but not a lot. The average High of 11.9°C ranked as our 69th warmest overall, and the average Low of 0.9°C was 31st overall.



High Temperatures

The Highs for October 2023 were at the top of our 30-year range early in the month, and then at the bottom of the range near the end of the month. 

October ends up with 21 Highs above average, and 10 below.

October averages about 2 Highs which reach 20°C, and 2023 had 7. 

But it also averages 2 Highs below freezing, and 2023 had 6. 

The warmest High was 24.8°C on the 7th, and the coldest was -4.5°C on the 24th.



Hot Days

October had 7 Highs reach 20°C, which brings the total for 2023 to 121 days. That is the 3rd most on record, behind 1897 & 1898 which both had 122. 4th place was last year, with 119 in 2022. The long-term average was around 95.



Low Temperatures

October 2023 had really warm Lows for most of the month, and then a really cool week near the end. 

Overall 19 Lows were above average, and 12 were below.

On average in October we get around 14 Lows below freezing, and 2023 had 10.

But that included 7 Lows below -5°C, while the average is only 3.



First-Frost

Blatchford's first-frost-of-autumn was on October 22nd, which was the 2nd latest on record. It just missed 2022's record of October 23rd. 

The average is around the end of September. The other local stations had earlier frosts, which were closer to their averages.

Blatchford had an early final-spring-frost on April 22nd, and a very late first-fall-frost on October 22nd. 

Altogether that was 182 frost-free days in-a-row, which is the 2nd most on record, behind 184 in 1985. The average is around 145 days.



First-Frost Across Canada

By the end of October every city here had had its first autumn frost.

Vancouver & Toronto were a week or two early, while the rest were mostly a week or two late.



Warm & Cold Months

October 2023's average High was 0.3°C above the 20th century average, for a tiny, orange bubble in this chart. The average Low was 1.4°C above the 20th century average, for a medium orange bubble. March is our only below average month so far this year.



Across Canada

October 2023's Highs were cool-to-average in the west, and warm in central & eastern Canada.

That ranged from Montréal at 3.2°C warmer than their average, down to Calgary at -1.6°C colder than theirs.



Precipitation

In October we average 18.7mm of precipitation. 

2023 was a really dry one, with 3mm at Blatchford, 4.8mm at the airport, and 4.2mm in Stony Plain.

In October we average around 8 days with precipitation. In 2023 Blatchford & the airport had 4 days, and Stony Plain & Campsie had 5.

The precipitation that we did get was pretty quiet, with the biggest day on October 23rd at the airport, with a whopping 2.6mm.

By the end of October we average 402mm of precipitation for the year. This year Blatchford is bang-on average at 402.5mm, the airport is at 427mm, and Stony Plain is up at 454mm.



Precipitation Across Canada

This chart has the precipitation for 2023 for these 11 Canadian cities. Halifax is at the top near 1,300mm, and Saskatoon is at the bottom at 222mm.

For big October storms: 

• St. John's had 51mm on the 16th 
• Winnipeg had 36mm on the 3rd 
• Vancouver had 34mm on the 18th 
• Montréal had 28mm on the 7th, and 25mm on the 6th

Snow

And we got our first snow! 

October averages 7cm of snow, and in 2023 we got 2.6cm.

We didn't have any October snow in 2021 or 2022, but we did get some in every year from 2016-2020.



First Snow

Blatchford doesn't record snow anymore, but the average date of the first snow has usually been around early~mid October. So 2023's first snow on October 23 was a little late, but still pretty typical.



Snowdepth

The airport, Stony Plain & Elk Island all briefly recorded 1~2cm of snowdepth, but that was gone before Halloween.

We don't normally get "lasting" snow before Halloween, but once the calendar ticks over into November the white stuff usually starts to stick around.



Snow Across Canada

A lot of cities saw snow this October:

• Calgary topped the list with 16cm. 
• Unfortunately Saskatoon, Regina & Winnipeg don't record snowfall anymore, but they did get some. 
• And Montréal, Ottawa & St. John's also joined the club right at the end of the month.

We've started to see little blips of snowdepth in various cities. Although Edmonton usually gets lasting snow before the other cities (typically even before Winnipeg).

November

In November we average 18 days with Highs above freezing, but we also start seeing Lows of -10°C and -15°C. Last November even had 3 Lows reach -20°C, which were the first -20°C days in November since 2015.