*The 1981-2010 climate normals for Winnipeg can be viewed by following this link.*
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In terms of how the normals have changed since the last period of normals (1971-2000), there are some striking differences. In the last decade, the month of January warmed by 1.4 degrees, while the month of May actually cooled down by 0.6 degrees. Only three months, May, June and October saw a cool down, May seeing the biggest cool down. This comes with little surprise considering that we have not had a top 30 warmest May since 1991, whereas 4 years in the 21st century (2002/04/08/09) were among the top 20 coldest Mays.
Overall, for the whole year, the normal temperature has risen by 0.3 degrees to 2.9°C.
December is now just as warm as February. This is the first time that this has happened. September has also rivalled May in terms of temperature.
We average more precipitation as well. In the 1971-2000 normals, normal yearly rainfall was 415.6 mm and snowfall 110.6 cm. When it comes to snowfall, December and May have seen the biggest jumps. December now averages 4.3 cm more snowfall and May's average more than tripled, going from 0.8 cm to 2.6 cm. This can be attributed to the colder temperatures May has seen in recent years, namely 2002 and 2004 which both saw more than 20 cm of snowfall during the month.
Reflecting the warmer normal temperatures in the winter, the normal number of -20°C and colder days in a full year has taken a nosedive. We now average only 53 days a year with a temperature of -20°C and colder; 5 days less than in the previous normals. This follows a trend of less cold days in Winnipeg in the last 50 or so years.
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