Weather or not

[David A]

You see Mes Amies Edmonton is NOT the coldest winter City in Canada...
View attachment 462347

It is a persistent stereotype, and I don't think a helpful one, that we are so cold. I feel it is one big reason it is hard to entice people and businesses to move here. I think it continues in part because people look at a map and we are further north than these other places, so they assume we must be colder. Of course, there is a saying about assumptions.

Interestingly, whenever it is very cold here it seems to generally makes the national news, but when Edmonton is warmer than Toronto (or some other such place), that is never mentioned.

 

[Avenuer]

Anyone else noticing that the trees are changing colour earlier this year? Seems to me that they are about a week or so ahead of the usual Fall colour timeline, with the typical peak around the first week of October.

 

[archited]

A factor attributable to the light occlusion caused by wildfires that limit the amount of sunlight getting through. Plants react to sunlight variation added to cooler temperatures.

 

[Avenuer]

That is what I was suspecting, but it is likely almost solely due to the wildfire smoke as we haven't really had cooler temperatures yet this month.

 

[archited]

This map suggests a milder winter for the Prairies and B.C. (even though it was generated for U.S. conditions).

 

[Gronk!]

Edmonton, AB - 7 Day Forecast - Environment Canada

Current conditions and forecasts including 7 day outlook, daily high/low temperature, warnings, chance of precipitation, pressure, humidity/wind chill (when applicable) historical data, normals, record values and sunrise/sunset times

weather.gc.ca

 

[archited]

Data from typical El Nino weather events suggest Edmonton is going to see less snow than normal this year...

 

[Glenco]

Even more concerning is the sever drop in snow in the mountains.

 

[erudyk_29]

I thought it might be fun to find some cities around the world that share similar climates to several Canadian Cities:
disclaimer: I did not do a full on study with math and stuff just had a look at some climate graphs that looked similar, using things like latitude, continentality, position of mountains etc to find somewhat similar locations:

First Edmonton (DFB aka: Warm Summer Continental):

The closest I could find was Yekaterinburg, Russia. Which is located in the Ural region of between European and Asian Russia


Next I looked at Vancouver, which was very difficult since the PNW has a very unique climate that is found in very few other places (CFB aka: Oceanic Climate, but with Mediterranean Circulation):

There wasn't really a great option, but A Coruna, in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia is the closest


Calgary was next (also DFB):

Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan actually fits quite well


Winnipeg was tricky (DFB):

Novosibirsk, Russia in Siberia was the closest


Toronto (DFA aka: Hot Summer Continental):

Fits quite well with Odesa, Ukraine


Montreal (DFB):

Is best compared to Moscow, Russia


Places like Manchuria and the Russian Far-East match up better with the Prairie Cities when it comes to continentality and mountain position, however the Asian Monsoonal circulation has a massive effect on these regions and they get absolutely drenched with rain in summer, and are bone dry in winter compared to the Prairies.

 

[Avenuer]

^Very interesting analyses, thank you!

 

[archited]

This map is of the U.S. only but it is pretty easy to extrapolate to Canada suggesting Edmonton's winter temp. average will go up by 4 degrees F -- a little over 2 degrees C.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/21/weather/us-winter-temperatures-climate-change/index.html

 

[kcantor]

Be empathetic and be careful out there: