October 2026 Review

It's maybe been feeling a little unusually wintery, but it's time for our big look back at Edmonton weather for October 2026.

In spite of the early snow October 2026's temperatures were pretty average. 

The average High of 11.1°C was the 78th warmest. The average Low of -0.3°C was 74th. 

That's above 2018-2020, and close to 2021. 

Over the past century October's average Highs have stayed very flat.



High Temperatures

October had 18 above-average Highs and 13 below. The below-average final week definitely did give us an early taste of winter. 

The coldest High was -1.1°C on the 29th, and the warmest was 22°C on the 17th.

October averages 2 20°C Highs, and 2026 got 3. (2022 had 12) 

It also averages 2 Highs below freezing, and even with the cold final week 2026 only had 1.



Warm Days So Far

We've probably seen our final 20°C High of the year. (we have recorded 5 of them in November, but the most recent was 1949). 

2026 ends up with 106, when our recent average is 111. But our historic average is closer to 90.



Low Temperatures

October 2026's Lows had 12 above-average and 19 below. 

The warmest was 7.2°C on the 8th. The coldest was -8.3°C on the 25th. The first frost was -0.2°C on the 4th.

In October we average 13 below-freezing Lows, and 3 of those are below -5°C. 2026 was pretty average with 14 and 3. 

Some Octobers drop below -10°C, although the last time that happened was 2020 & 2019. And back in 2003 & 2002 we even got to -16°C.



First-Frost

Blatchford's average first frost is September 30th. 2026 was a few days later on October 4th. 

2023 & 2022 have the records, waiting until October 22nd & 23rd. 

Our final spring frost on May 17th was a little late, so 2026 had 139 frost-free days, when we average 146.

Around the neighbourhood Blatchford's first frost was October 4th, Stony Plain was October 1st, the airport was September 15th, and Campsie was September 13th. All of those were about a week later than average.



Warm & Cold Months

October's temperatures were the definition of average, so its bubbles barely show up here. 

The average High of 11.1°C was right on the 20th century average. 

The average Low of -0.3°C was just 0.2°C warmer than the 20th century average.



Across Canada

Across Canada October was warm from Saskatchewan through Quebec, and not very exciting everywhere else. 

At the top Toronto's Highs were 3.3°C warmer than their 20th century average, while Calgary's were -0.5°C below theirs.



Precipitation

In October Edmonton averages 18mm of Precipitation. 

In 2026 Blatchford was above average with 29.9mm, while the airport got 23.7mm, and Stony Plain got 23.2mm.



2026 So Far

By the end of October we average around 400mm of precipitation for the year, but Blatchford blew past that in mid-July. Blatchford is up at 747mm, Stony Plain has 594mm, and the airport has 520mm.



New Record!

Blatchford's 746.7mm is the wettest year on record. 

It passed 1900's record of 724.8mm on October 10th, and Stony Plain's 1980 record of 731.9mm on October 23rd. 

For the rest of the year we average another 36mm, which would put us around 780mm.



Precipitation Across Canada

Edmonton's 747mm has us at the bottom of the pack of the central & eastern cities, and just ahead of Toronto's 747mm. 

We're even well ahead of Vancouver's 569mm, which is a bottom-10 year for them. 

The prairie cities are from 360-430mm.

.Halifax's 1159mm is pretty typical.

For big October storms St. John's had a 39mm day on the 15th. Montréal, Ottawa & St. John's all had days around 25mm. Edmonton's biggest day was 9.3mm on the 23rd.



Snow

And yup, we got snow. In recent years our first snow had been pretty late, and the average date was around October 30th. 

But 2026 got started on October 10th, which was the earliest since 2019. Although 2018 & 2017 both got quite a bit of September snow.

In October we average 7cm of snow, and 2026 delivered 11.8cm. 

And we average 4 days with snow, but got 6.

When we get early snow it almost always melts off, and it sounds like that will happen next week. 

But now that we're into November, the permanent snow can show up at any point. 

Although 2025, 2024 & 2023 did all wait until very late November or early December.

Who else got snow already?

Calgary recorded 6.8cm, although a bunch of other cities don't measure snowfall. 

But for snowdepth Dawson City, Regina and Saskatoon also made an appearance.



November

For November, we average around 18 Highs above 0°C, but we also start seeing lows of -10°C or -15°C. -20°C even shows up sometimes, like in 2022, and 2010-2015. 2014 got down to -29.8°C.