If you thought the last month was one of the coldest Februarys you can remember, you weren’t wrong. Last February is officially on record as the coldest one since 1979.
It was also the second coldest February in the last half century, and the fifth coldest since the start of record keeping.
The 30 year average for temperatures in February was -7.6 C. The average temperature last month was only -19.4 C. In February 1979 the average temperature was -21.4.
The coldest February on record, 1936, saw an average temperature of -27.3. The coldest all time February low was also recorded on Feb. 8 of that year, at -46.1.
Josh Classen's WxBlog
If you're an Edmontonian under the age of 40, this was the coldest February you've ever lived through.
Let's start with the past half-century.
In the past 50 years, only 1979 was colder than this past month.
We had an average high of -14 and an average of -24 in Feb 2019.
Back in '79, the average high was -18 and the average low was -25.
The MEAN temperature is an average of the daily highs & lows.
This year, it was -19. In '79...it was -21!
Compared to the 30-year averages, we were 11 degrees colder than "normal" this past month.
AND...we had 21 days where the temperature hit -20 or colder.
1979 had 25. But, this year we had an extra WEEK of -20 days compared to the next closest "cold February" in 1994 (when we "only" had 14 days with a -20)
OK...how about the ALL-TIME rankings?
February 2019 ranks as the 5th coldest month of February for the city on record (dating back to 1880).
It's just slightly ahead of 1949. But, it's not even CLOSE to the cold Februarys we had in 1936, 1887 and 1904.
The coldest February on record had a mean temperature of -27 !
Interestingly, we've had some wild swings in the past 12 months.
May 2018 - warmest on record.
Sept 2018 - 5th coldest.
Jan 2019 - 16th warmest.
Feb 2019 - 5th coldest.
