Thanksgiving Long Weekend 2019

How did the weather for the 2019 Thanksgiving Long Weekend compare to recent years?

Temperatures

Thanksgiving 2019 was a late Thanksgiving, and it wasn't really cold, but it wasn't warm either.

Saturday's High of 11.9°C was above the Thanksgiving average of 11°C, and Friday also broke 10°C at 10.3°C. Things cooled off from Saturday & Sunday at 7.2°C & 4.4°C respectively.

In recent years:

• Thanksgiving Monday in 2018 was below freezing at -1.8°C
• 2017 had two days above 15°C
• 2016's Highs were all below 3°C
• 2015 was a "hot" thanksgiving with one High at 26°C and another at 21°C

Precipitation

It was a fairly rainy Thanksgiving weekend, with the International getting 2.7mm on the Sunday and 3.6mm on the Monday. And Blatchford (not shown) was double that with 6.4mm of precipitation on the Sunday and 6.9mm on the Monday.

This year the International also recorded "trace" amounts of snow, but not enough to count as a measurement. Thanksgivings 2016-2018 were all snowier than that, with 2016 & 2018 getting a lot, and 2017 a little.

For 2015-2019 we've now had 5 Thanksgivings in-a-row with precipitation. And just before that from 2010-2014 we had 5 in-a-row without any.

Thanksgiving 2018

Today we'll be looking at the weather for Thanksgiving 2018.

The short version: pretty cold but not really cold; pretty snowy but not really snowy.


Temperatures

This chart shows the temperatures for the Thanksgiving weekends (Friday-Monday) going back to 1995.

Thanksgiving 2018 was on October 5-8, which as early as it can possibly be. Other early Thanksgivings here were 2001 and 2012. But even a late Thanksgiving can only be as late as October 11-14, and recently we had those in 1996, 2002 and 2013.

The warmest recent Thanksgiving was 2010 with the Friday, Saturday and Sunday all above 25°C. And the hottest single Thanksgiving weekend day here was the Saturday of 2015's Thanksgiving weekend, at 26°C.

The coldest recent Thanksgiving was 2009, with all 4 Highs below freezing. 2016 was also pretty cool, with all for Highs below 5°C.

How does 2018 compare?

The average High around Thanksgiving is 11.5°C, and on Friday and Saturday we were just below that at 10.2°C and 11.2°C respectively. Then Sunday was cool at 7.4°C. As I'm writing this it looks like Monday's High will be about -1.8°C, and that's very cold. Since 1995 the only other Thanksgiving with any Highs below freezing was 2009.

The average Low for Thanksgiving is 1°C, and this year all of the Lows were a few degrees cooler down around -2°C and -3°C. 2016, 2009, 2008, 2000, & 1997 all had Lows which dropped below -5°C.

So Thanksgiving 2018 was pretty cold but not really cold.


Rain & Snow

This chart shows the Rain and Snow recorded at the International Airport since 1995.

This year Sunday had 2.2cm of snow & 0.4mm of rain, and Monday had 2.0cm more of snow.

For some recent comparisons:

• 2017 had 0.2mm of rain on the Saturday, and 0.4cm of snow on the Sunday.
• 2016 was a big snow year, with snow on all 4 days for a total of 12.5cm.
• 2015 had a total of 1.4mm or rain on the Sunday and Monday.

Before that we need to go back to 2009 to find a Thanksgiving with some Precipitation, and it had 1cm of snow across 3 days.

The really notable Thanksgiving here was 1998, with 2.6mm of rain and 16.2cm of snow.

So Thanksgiving 2018 was pretty snowy but not really snowy.


Our Cold, Cold, Cold September Continues...

Last week we talked about the historically cold September of 2018, and while temperatures have moderated a bit since then, we've still been below average - in some cases (like Thanksgiving Monday) a lot below average.


Winter 2018-2019 Snow Totals So Far...

This chart shows our cumulative snow totals for the winter of 2018-2019, so far. And thanks to the historically snowy September 2018 we're well above any recent years, with a total of 43.2cm. The average doesn't hit 43.2cm until later December.


Lasting Snow

This chart shows the depth of snow-on-the-ground at the International Airport. 2018-2019 isn't included yet because so far in October there hasn't been much going on.

At Edmonton Weather Nerdery we don't make predictions. But typically we don't get lasting snow until the last week of October at the earliest.

Thanksgiving Weather

We're near the end of Thanksgiving weekend, so it's time to see how 2017 compared to other years.

Temperatures

As I'm writing this, the final High for Thanksgiving Monday hasn't been recorded yet. But so far Friday was warm at 16°C, Saturday was cooler at 10°C, and Sunday reached 7°C. The average High is 12°C, and the average Low is 1°C, so this year we're right around where we would expect to be,

2016 was a cold Thanksgiving, with all 4 days down around freezing. And 2015 was a warm one, with all four days above 15°C, and the Saturday all the way up at 26°C. 2014 was quite warm too, with all four days above 15°C.

Taking the average temperatures across the entire weekend, the warmest recent Thanksgiving was 2010, which had 3 days above 20°C. The coldest was 2009, with the Highs for all four days below freezing.

Precipitation

In this chart we have we have Thanksgiving precipitation at the Airport, and it isn't very common.

The standout is obviously 1998, with 2.6mm of rain and 15.6cm on the Friday. And then last year in 2016 we had a total of 12.5cm of snow spread across the 4 days.

In 2017 we had 0.2mm of rain on Saturday, and then 0.4cm of snow on Sunday.

Thanksgiving

Another long weekend with a pretty nasty looking forecast:

Source: Environment Canada http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/ab-50_metric_e.html

How unusual is that?

The average high for this time of year is way up at 12°C, and the low is 1°C. And those are just the averages - last year we had a day above 25°C, and days above 15°C are pretty common.

But if the weekend does follow the forecast, then it will definitely be a cool Thanksgiving. Although we should still be well above 2009 which was the coldest in recent history, where the high temperatures for all 4 days were below freezing.

In terms of precipitation, Thanksgiving is normally pretty quiet.

This year's forecast calls for rain and flurries and snow - and some parts of the province are supposed to get a lot of snow - so we'll have to see where things end up.