If you think it seems like there’s been more snow than usual so far this November, you’re right.
Unofficial precipitation measurements from Edmonton International Airport show that as of Nov. 19, 36 centimetres of snow had fallen, said Dan Kulak, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada. Kulak said the average for the entire month is 18 centimetres.
“You can see that’s a little bit more than average,” Kulak said.
Numbers from the airport may be more or less snow than experienced here in St. Albert.
“It could be widely variable. Snowfalls like this, you generally get a snow event across a region but you can have bands of snow a few kilometres wide where you get 50 per cent more snow than a few kilometres away,” Kulak said.
The recent large snow dumps are courtesy of weather systems coming from the west, “Pacific systems with a lot of moisture,” Kulak said.
Just because snowfall levels have already doubled the average for November, though, doesn’t mean snow events are uncommon at this time of year.
“When we look at the longer term normals, if you’re going to get a large dump of snow, the favourite months are basically November, December, and then March, April, May sort of thing,” Kulak said. “We’re at that time of year where these things are more likely.”
Meanwhile, a seasonal forecast issued by Environment Canada at the beginning of November for this month, December and January predict cooler temperatures.
“The seasonal forecasts aren’t going to say you’re never going to get any warm air, or warm spells, it’s just suggesting a predominance towards slightly cooler weather,” said Kulak.
Although the weather this week was frightful, the temperatures were supposed to warm up for this weekend and last until Wednesday, Kulak said. Overall, though, it has been cooler than normal lately.
“Normal daytime highs for now, there’s about -3 for high and the low is about -12,” Kulak said.
When asked how it’s possible to switch from a snowfall warning one day to predicted positive temperatures the next, Kulak explained it’s during temperature transitions that snow occurs.
“It doesn’t snow when it’s warm, it doesn’t snow when it’s cold, it snows when it’s going from one to the other,” he said.
