Thursday 1 November 2012

October Ends the Warm And Dry Streak

October 2012 in numbers. CLICK to enlarge
    October marked the end of a streak of warmer than normal months in Winnipeg. Using the 1971-2000 normals (which are still considered official by Environment Canada), the streak ended with an unprecedented 15 consecutive warmer than normal months, going from July 2011 to September 2012. The month also broke a 4 month streak of drier than normal months with significantly above normal rainfall. With 57.5 mm of precipitation at the airport, it was the wettest October since 1998. However, this airport amount is actually suspiciously low, mainly due to its dry bias on the October 4-5 rain/snow storm. Practically every other station in the city received between 70 and 85 mm of precipitation through the month.

     One daily rainfall record was broken on the 23rd with 12.5 mm, breaking the old record of 7.6 mm in 1954.

     The biggest highlight of the month was a significant early season snowstorm from October 3rd to 5th which marked a brutal end to the summer-like weather we had experienced just days earlier. 20-30 cm of wet snowfall fell south and east of Winnipeg. This extremely wet and heavy snow caused many problems including widespread power outages and treacherous roads. Winnipeg was spared the worst with only about 2 cm of brief accumulation.

     The month ended quite gloomy with day after day of cloudy skies and light precipitation. It could have been worse however, considering that many Albertans endured a week and a half of below zero daytime highs and snow-covered ground, and while Sandy pounded eastern North America.

4 comments:

  1. Snowfall looking less likely for Winnipeg as the narrow boundary between heavy snow and little to nothing is in fact setting up over the western RRV. I think there will still be some flurries overnight and early morning tomorrow around Winnipeg, but we wont get much accumulation. Heavier accumulations to our northwest and southwest

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  2. A side note to the October summary, it was the 15th coldest October on record in Calgary, with an average mean of 2.8°C, so it was certainly a cool end to the month out west.

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  3. Got 0.4 cm of snow in the south end overnight, with a dusting seen in most of the city. Not much, but definitely enough to slicken up the roads and sidewalks, so careful out there this morning before it begins to melt later.

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  4. Reports of 12 cm in Brandon, 5 cm in Portage, 4 cm in Winkler and 3 cm in Carman, via Rob's Blog.

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