The Great Deepfreeze of January 2024

I'll be updating this post over the next few days, as the deepfreeze works its way along. It's always tough to write about these things while they're still ongoing, because there's so much stuff going on, and today's extreme cold might pale compared to tomorrow's. So if you're looking for the most recent and frequent updates head to:

• https://twitter.com/yegwxnerdery
• https://bsky.app/profile/yegwxnerdery.bsky.social
• https://mstdn.ca/@yegwxnerdery

As of January 13th the forecasts have moderated a bit, and at least as far as Edmonton is concerned it looks like January 12th was probably The Big Day. 

These dashboards will mostly be set for Edmonton, but it was cold across the west, so you can select other cities with the dropdowns.

• Edmonton's High was our 2nd coldest January 12th on record, and the Low was 4th coldest.
• Calgary had their 2nd coldest High & Low.
• Kelowna had their 2nd coldest High & #1 coldest Low
• Vancouver had their 4th coldest High & #1 coldest Low

For Edmonton & Calgary this was the first -30°C High since 2004. 

Saskatoon got one too, but it also had some in 2022, 2021 & 2008.

Calgary had its first Low of -35°C since 2005. 

Edmonton also had some in 2020, 2008 & 2004. 

And in Saskatoon & Regina a lot of years get one or two.

Edmonton hasn't officially hit -40°C since 1972, and for Calgary it's 1954. 

But Saskatoon still gets them somewhat regularly. January 12th was its first -41°C since 2019, and before that 2009 & 2004.

Kelowna's January 12th Low of -28.9°C was the first time that they'd reached -28°C since 2005. 

And they've only ever recorded 18 Lows below -28°C.

The Edmonton airport's history only goes back to the 1960s, so it's not super long. 

But January 12th's High of -34.4°C was its coldest ever recorded. 

The Low of -45.9°C was its 3rd coldest.

For the stations with a century+ of history, these kind of temperatures don't really rank historically. 

But just since the 1970s January 12th Low was Edmonton's 6th coldest, Calgary's 23rd, and Saskatoon's 17th. 

And for High temperatures since 1950, January 12th's High was Edmonton's 2nd coldest, and Calgary's 8th coldest.

That's it for now.

We've still got a couple cold days to go, and soon we'll be talking about the streaks of X days in-a-row below Y, because we're going to be bumping up against some once-in-a-generation records.

First -20°C of 2023-2024

January 9th's Low of -20.5°C was Edmonton's first -20°C of the winter.

That is the 2nd latest first -20°C on record, tied with 2020. 2003 has the record with January 11th.

By this point of the winter, on average we've already had around 12 of them.

January 10th will be Calgary's first -20°C, which is their 5th latest on record.

As of January 9th, this is what we've had so far for -20°C across the country. The prairie cities are all well below their averages.

6 New Cities

 The dashboards have been updated with 6 new cities:

• Dawson City, YT
• Victoria, BC
• Kelowna, BC
• Quebec City, QC
• Moncton, NB
• Charlottetown, PEI

This will make things a little crowded, but it's nice to have a few more locations represented.

2023 Year-in-Review Part 3: Snow

And finally we have reached the end of our 2023 Year-in-Review Part 3: Snow! 

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

(Blatchford no longer records snowfall or snowdepth, so most of the numbers will be from the International Airport)



Monthly Snow

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

There wasn't a month in 2023 which reached our average snowfall, and months like January, March, November & December were some of the lowest on record.



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 in 2023 the airport recorded...36.8cm. The airport's previous lowest year was 51.5cm in 1981.



Snow Across Canada

For these cities across Canada Vancouver's 19cm was the lowest, then Edmonton's 37cm. Calgary recorded 100cm more than us, with 137cm. Up at the top are Ottawa with 260cm and St. John's with 363cm.



Last & First Snowfalls

There wasn't much snow to speak of in 2023, but our final spring snowfall was on April 11th, which is a few weeks early. The first fall snow was on October 23rd, which is right on average.

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 2023, with the snow mostly gone at the stations by the first week of April, while is can sometimes hang on a bit longer into April.

This one is a little busy, but it shows the spring 2023 snow depths for other cities. Winnipeg, Ottawa & St. John's all hung onto their snow a little longer than Edmonton, into mid-April.



Fall Snow

For fall snow there's not a lot to talk about so far.

We got some early snow in the last week of October, then nothing in November, and then a little bit showed up in December.

Snow normally starts to stick around between November 1~15, and with what we've got so far this is the least snowy winter since 2005-2006.

 

A busy chart again, but at the end of 2023 nobody has much snow on the ground. Ottawa, Montréal, Halifax & St. John's all had some temporary spikes in early December, but those melted-off.



Snowstorms

It's tough to talk about snowstorms when the airport had its least snowy year on record.

But the biggest day was 10.6cm on April 11th, with a quarter of the snow for the year. Everything else was around 3cm or less.

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

• Calgary had 36cm in January 
• Toronto had 24cm in March 
• Ottawa had 26cm in January 
• Montréal had 35cm in December 
• Halifax had 26cm in December 
• St. John's had 47cm in January

The biggest single-day snowfalls were: St. John's with 34cm & 32cm Calgary with 34cm And Ottawa & Montréal had 20cm+ days.

And that finally brings us to the end of our long look back at the weather for 2023. As always, all of these charts are interactive dashboards for all of these Canadian cities.

2023 Year-in-Review Part 2: Precipitation

Are you ready for our 2023 Year-in-Review Part 2: Precipitation! 

We will take a look at Edmonton, and some other cities across Canada:

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

In 2023 the airport was right on the average with 432mm, Stony Plain was a little high with 456mm, and Blatchford was a little low with 406mm.

Of all of the stations in the Edmonton area New Sarepta had the most with 464mm.

The lowest was South Campus with 297mm, although it might have been missing some days. The 2nd lowest was St. Albert at 391mm.

On a monthly basis June-August were above-average, and were when we got most of our rain.

January, March and October-December were all some of the lowest years on record.

The total precipitation for October-December was 6.8mm at Blatchford, 10mm at the airport, and 5.9mm at Stony Plain. That's bottom-5 for Blatchford, and the lowest since the 1960s for the airport and Stony Plain.



Big Storms

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

The big storm for 2023 was on June 18th with 52mm at Blatchford, 41mm at the airport, and 47mm in Stony Plain.

For large 20mm+ storms Blatchford had 5, the International had 7, and Stony Plain had 9.

Blatchford's 52mm storm was pretty rare for us.

The last time that Blatchford recorded a 50mm+ day was 2012, and for the airport it was 2001. Stony Plain had 2 in 2022, and one in 2016, 2012 & 2011.



Precipitation Across Canada

For cities across Canada the total precipitation ranged from Saskatoon at 232mm up to Halifax near 1600mm.

None of those cities were well above average this year, but Vancouver's 875mm was roughly bottom-10 for them, and Calgary's 348mm was pretty low for them.



Big Storms Across Canada

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

Halifax had the biggest days, with 60.6mm on August 5th and 58.9mm on July 21st.

Other big days:

• Winnipeg's 54mm on June 3rd 
• Montréal's 53mm on December 18th 
• Blatchford's 52mm on June 18th 
• St. John's 51mm on October 16th.

Halifax was also the winner for the most big storms, with 9 40mm+ days. St. John's had 4, Blatchford had 2, and Vancouver, Winnipeg & Montréal all had 1.

And that's the end of Part 2 of our 2023 Year-in-Review. In Part 3 we will take a look at snow.

2023 Year-in-Review Part 1: Temperatures

And now, what you've all been waiting for!

It's time for our big look back at 2023 with our Year-in-Review Part 1: Temperatures.

And it was a warm one...


Warmest & Coldest Years

The big news: 2023 is Edmonton's warmest year on record at 3.3°C above the 20th century average.

That beats 2016 (2.9°C), 1987 (3°C) and 1981 (3°C).

May & Dec were the warmest on record, and Jan, Jun, Aug, Sep & Nov were all very warm.

And there was so much smoke.

2023's average High of 11.7°C was our warmest on record, just sneaking past 1889(!). 

The average Low of 1.3°C was our warmest, ahead of 1°C in 2016. 

And together that makes 2023 1st overall. In the red lines you can see the dips for the cool March and late-October.

In 2023 the only month which was colder than the 20th century average was March. 

Our other warmest years (like 2016, 2015, 1987, 1981) also didn't have many cool months. 

On the other hand, while 2021 had its heatdome summer, it also had a cool February & December.

For the climate stripes scarf chart 2023's 3.3°C is the reddest red so far.

The last time that we had a blue stripe was back in 1996, at -1.7°C colder than the 20th century average.

For the local outlying stations 2023's Highs ranked 1 for Stony Plain, 2 for the airport, and 3 for Campsie. The Lows were #2 for Stony Plain, #9 for the airport, and #6 for Campsie. 

The overall average temperature for those stations ranked 2nd or 3rd.



Temperatures Across Canada

Across the country 2023 was also Montréal's #1 warmest, and Calgary's #2. 

Saskatoon was #5, and Regina & Ottawa were top-10.

Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto & Halifax were top-15.

And St. John's rounds out the list as its 22nd warmest year.

Edmonton & Calgary had their warmest May & December on record, along with a warm January, June, July, August, September & November.

In Montréal it was a very warm January, July, September, October & December.

Here are the climate stripes for the country's big cities.

In 2022 we had a few whites and one blue (Winnipeg), but in 2023 everyone is pink or red.



Warm & Cold Months

2023's temperatures were sometimes split west/east across the country, with a cool March in the west, or cool October in the east. 

But January, September and December were above average across the country.



High Temperatures

For 2023 we had 258 days with Highs above our 30-year average. 

That included 6 warmest-records in May, June & August, and 22 others which were the warmest in 30 years.

We also set 2 new records for coldest-High, with -22.3°C on February 22nd, and 10.8°C on June 20th.

2023 had 303 days with Highs that reached 0°C. That's the 3rd most on record, behind 304 in 1912, and 305 in 1981. The average is around 280 days, and that has stayed pretty constant over the past century.

2023 had 121 days with Highs that reached 20°C, which is 2nd only to 122 in 1897 & 1898.

2023 had 55 days reach 25°C, which tied 2018 for 5th most on record. 1898 has the most with 64.

For 30°C days 2023 had 7, which was down from 11 in 2022, and from the record 17 in 2021. Two of those 30°C days were right at the beginning of May, with new daily records on the 3rd & 4th.

For 30°C days across the country no one was above average, and in fact Toronto, Ottawa & Montréal were all a little low.



Low Temperatures

For 2023 there were 258 days with above-average Lows. That included 15 new warmest-records, which is more than any other year.

The below-average days were mostly pretty brief, except for a bit of a blip in late-February and March, and then again near Halloween.

2023 ended up with 8 Lows of -20°C, which is the 2nd lowest on record. That was helped by the fact that we didn't have any cold days in November-December. 

2023 had 3 Lows reach -25°C, which makes it a bottom-5 year.

2023 had 0 days reach -30°C. The last time that happened was in 2016. 

Right now our last -30°C was December 22nd 2022. However, we've had much longed streaks without any -30°C days, in 1999-2002 and 1986-1988.

For -20°C Lows across the country 2023 was well below average for the prairie cities.



Yearly Extremes

With a warmest High of 32.2°C, and a coldest Low of -27.9°C the range of temperatures recorded in 2023 was 60.1°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 spring frost was pretty early on April 22nd, while the first fall frost on October 22nd was the 2nd latest ever, just missing 2022's record of October 23rd.

So 2023 ended up with 182 frost-free days. Our average is 142, and 1980 has the record at 184.

Across the country most cities' final spring frost was a bit early, except for Vancouver, Ottawa & Halifax. The first fall frosts were mostly late, except for Vancouver & Toronto. For the prairie cities 2023's frost-free period was a few weeks longer than average.



Edmonton versus Calgary

And finally, a quick comparison of Edmonton & Calgary. The temperatures track fairly closely to each other, except that sometimes a Chinook really hits Calgary. We saw that in January & November, with Calgary's Highs 10°C or more warmer than Edmonton.

That's the end of Part 1 of our 2023 Year-in-Review. Part 2 will look at precipitation, and part 3 will be all about snow. But before we go...



Will 2024 be even warmer?

I never make predictions, but it's probably unlikely that 2024 will be warmer than 2023.

2023 got most of its "points" from December, then January, May, November, etc. Without an El Niño super-charged winter, 2023 wouldn't have been #1.

2022 had our warmest August on record, at 4.7°C above the 20th century average.

But for 2023's record December it was 8.3°C. 

It's easier for us to be well above average in the winter, and so a warm winter has a bigger influence on the yearly average than a hot summer.

This may be hard to believe, but modern Januarys are always warm (or at least warmer than the 20th century average).

But November & December flipflop a lot.

For any year to beat 2023 it will need a warm November & December, and that might wait until the next El Niño.

Maybe 2024 will be a repeat of 2016? 

2016 was the 2nd year of a super El Niño, and through a lot of the year it was the warmest on record. But eventually the El Niño wound down, and a cool October & December pushed 2016 down to 4th.

And with that, we're taking a break until tomorrow and Part 2: Precipitation.