Arctic invasion: Coldest November temperatures in almost a decade

Arctic air is settling in and temperatures will dip below -20 in Edmonton later this week. The city hasn’t been below -20 in November since 2015. It hit -20.3 degrees on the 25th that year. We’ll be VERY close to dropping below -20 on Wednesday morning, the last day of the month. Daytime highs in the -15 range Tue/Wed will be the coldest November daytime highs since 2014.

Edmonton hasn’t had a November temperature below -25 since 2014. We’ll probably avoid reaching that marker this year. But, morning lows in the first few days of December (Thu & Fri) will likely be in the -25 to -30 range.

Back in November 2014 the 28th, 29th and 30th all dropped below -25. Edmonton hit a max low of -29.8 degrees on Nov 29th that year.

Comparing this week to last week - Edmonton will be about 15 to 20 degrees colder for average highs & lows.

The average high in the city last week (Nov 20-26) was 5 degrees.

This week’s average high is forecast to be -13. That’s an 18 degree swing.

The average low this week is forecast to be -17. That’s 14 degrees cooler than last week’s average low of -3.

As for extremes, the maximum temperature last week was 7.4 degrees on Nov 24th (last Thursday). After Monday, the city will spend most of this week below -15 with morning lows in the -25 to -30 range Friday. That could give us a maximum swing of 32 to 37 degrees over the course of one week. In fact, comparing last Thursday (Nov 24) to this Thursday (Dec 1), we’ll see a difference of about 25 degrees in daytime highs. From a high of 7 to a high around -18.

Twenty to thirty degree swings in November are fairly common. But, a one-week drop of more than 30 degrees hasn’t happened in November since 2014.