March 2024 Review

It's time for our big look back at Edmonton weather for March 2024.

It's probably not surprising to learn that March 2024 was a little cool.

The average High of 0.7°C was our 76th warmest on record. The average Low of -9°C was 64th warmest. 

However, it was warmer than 2023 & 2020.



High Temperatures

March 2024 started cold, got pretty warm for a week or so, and then was pretty cool but not really cold.

14 Highs were above our 30-year average, and 17 were below.

March averages:

• 20 Highs above-freezing, and 2024 had 16. 
• 13 Highs of 5°C, and 2024 had 13. 
• 4 Highs of 10°C, and 2024 had 6. 

March got to 16.2°C on the 18th, making this only the 7th March since 2000 to reach 15°C.


Low Temperatures

For the Lows, March 2024 started really cold, warmed up and set two new records on the 15th and 18th, and then cooled back down to around average. 

12 Lows were above average, and 19 were below.

March averages 2~3 Lows of -20°C, and 2024 had 5. And that included -27.2°C on the 6th.

We hadn't gotten to -25°C in March since 2019, and hadn't gotten to -20°C since 2020. 

We also had 4 above-freezing Lows, when the average is around 3.



Cold Winter Days

Hopefully we've seen the end of our deepfreezes this winter. 

In a winter we average around 25 Lows of -20°C, and this winter had 19.

For -25°C Lows we average around 10, and this winter had 8. 

And we had 5 Lows of -30°C, when we average around 4.



Warm & Cold Months

March 2024's High of 0.7°C was -0.3°C colder than the 20th century average, and is a tiny blue dot here. 

The Low of -9°C was 0.5°C warmer, and is a small orange dot.

That follows a warm February and pretty average January.



Across Canada

March 2024 was cool~ish for the Alberta & Saskatchewan cities, but warm everywhere else. 

Ottawa was at the top. Their average High of 7.2°C was 5.6°C warmer than their 20th century average. 

On the other end Calgary's 0.8°C was 2°C colder than their 20th century average.



Cold Days Across Canada

At the end of March Winnipeg had 16 Lows of -20°C, when they average 37. 

That's their 2nd lowest on record, and is only the 3rd time they've had fewer than Edmonton (1955-56 & 1931-32). 

But the Alberta & Saskatchewan cities were also below their averages.



The Horserace

2023 was Edmonton's warmest year on record, but 3 months into 2024 we're only a bit warmer than our 20th century average.

With the cool January & March our Highs are the 56th warmest and the Lows are 42nd warmest, for the 45th warmest year overall.

While 2024 has had a cool start in Edmonton, for the Ontario & Quebec cities the Highs have been some of the warmest on record, and Winnipeg is top-10.



Snow

In March we average 19cm of snow, and 2024 got close with 17cm.

March averages 9 days with snow, and 2024 had 6.

By the end of March we average 99cm of snowfall, and so far in 2024 we're at 61.4cm.

We're probably not done yet, though. We average another 14cm in April, and 5cm in May.

Across the country Edmonton's 61cm is still below Toronto's 67cm. 

Charlottetown and St. John's are up at the top near 350cm. 

And Calgary's 160cm puts it well ahead of Montréal's 147cm.

In March Calgary got 68.4cm of snow, which was their 2nd snowiest March behind 70.3cm in 1998. They average another 30cm in April & May.



Snowstorms

Our biggest snowdays this March were all just 3~4cm, on the 2nd, 20th, 21st & 28th.

Across the country the big March snow storms were:

• St. John's with 72.2cm on the 7th-9th.
• Calgary with 36.3cm over 4 days from the 20-23rd, and 22cm on the 1st & 2nd.

Snowdepth

At the end of March our average snowdepth is 10cm, although a lot of years are at 0cm by that point. 

This year the airport, Stony Plain & Campsie were all snowfree by March 15th, but the late snow bumped things back up for a few days.

Around Edmonton during the winter we usually have snow on the ground for roughly 140 days in-a-row.

But 2023-2024 was a really short winter for us. Stony Plain's longest stretch with snowdepth was 21 days. And the airport's will be around 70 days.

Overall this winter our snowdepth was pretty low. It didn't really get started until mid-January, and for most stations it peaked at around 20cm in mid-March.

Across the country, the cities which still had snow on the ground on March 31st were: 

• Dawson City at 46cm 
• Quebec City at 11cm 
• Calgary at 8cm 
• Saskatoon at 7cm 
• Edmonton at 2cm

The big snowdepth cities this winter were in the east. 

• St. John's peaked at 82cm, which isn't all that unusual. 
• Halifax got to 96cm, which hadn't happened since 2016-2017. 
• Charlottetown got to 56cm and Moncton got to 45cm, which are fairly typical.

April

For April, on average we only get 3 Highs below 0°C, although 2022, 2020 & 2018 started quite cold. 

Most Aprils reach 20°C, and 2001, 2015, 2016 & 2018 all got to 25°C. 

But April still gets lots of Lows below freezing, and averages 14cm of snow.