Calgary has marked another weather milestone. As of Oct. 10, this October will go down as the snowiest on record with 48.2 centimetres of snow. The old record was 47.5 centimetres of snow in October 1961, according to Environment Canada’s historical records.
Early season snow blanketed the city at the beginning of the month, with snow falling six out of the first 10 days in October this year.
Calgary will normally see 10 centimetres of snow throughout the entire month of October. By Oct. 3, 2018, the city had nearly quadrupled that amount.
A number of snowfall records were set this month: the record of 4.6 centimetres for Oct. 2 was crushed when 32.8 centimetres fell; that snowfall total marked the snowiest single day ever in the month of October; and the record for measurement of snow on the ground was also beaten for a number of days thanks to that system.
October is typically the least snowiest month between fall and summer. The only months that see less snow than October are June, July, August and September.
Cold arctic air has been a major factor in the unusual snowfall this year as it has met up with warmer Pacific moisture.
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Early season systems do have the potential to bring high snowfall accumulations because the temperature is still warm enough to produce heavy, wet snow.
Calgarians are keenly aware of how unusual the weather has been this fall. Daytime highs have been below seasonal for the past two weeks, with some daytime highs below the average overnight low.
Temperatures are expected to gradually warm up over the next week with daytime highs forecast to get closer to seasonal after the weekend.
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