Rate the Climate: Edmonton, Alberta

[Neptunepenguins]

Originally Posted by marlaver

E only for the decent snow and sunshine numbers.



But the difference btw both stations isn't crazy (just 1.6ºC). The UHI effect makes the readings more representative of the city's climate than in an airport.

I was doing some data collection on a site, since I am able to easily get Canadian weather data from there (in Fahrenheit though) and decided to see the data for 2004-2022 for a bunch of cities in Canada as I lived in a place that had a weather station that started in 2004 and wanted to see how it compared to other known cold cities.

Anyways, I collected data for both Edmonton stations and their yearly lows are much different.

A difference of 2C in mean temperatures between the two, and the low temperatures being very different year round. The summer nights at Leduc airport are just pitiful, while downtown it's somewhat reliably warm.

Then you have the fact that -40 air temps are very possible at Leduc airport while downtown it hasn't happened in that time span. In fact, downtown's record low is higher than Leduc's mean minimum.

Sorry for bumping, but didn't know where else to put these stats.

[Bisfbath]

I'd give it an E and place it in the second from worst tier, with F reserved for the worst of the worst like Norilsk etc. Much too cold.

I've never been to Edmonton but I did go to Calgary in early September and it was already getting chilly.

[Can't think of username]

C. Make it 5-6C warmer in all months and keep the snowfall from November to April (perhaps a bit occasionally in May or October) and it would get an A. Reducing the April-October diurnal range to 9-11C would be good too.
Precipitation may or may not need to be altered for the A criteria. Low precipitation on its own is of no consequence to me, but I like seeing lush and green outdoors on my walks in the warmer months, and I don't know if the increased evapotranspiration from the temperature increase will preclude that or not.

In other words, I would change this to Toronto's climate (except maybe the precipitation). I like Dfb climates (even if close to Dfa), but Edmonton is just too cool/cold in all months to be my ideal Dfb.

Here are some 1991-2020 normals for Edmonton (airport) that Ed's Mountain made.

[veshyvonny]

D. Gets a little cold for my liking, has a wet season and dry season (I would rather widespread rain), too dry considering the colder climate, Summers are too mild with random heat waves. Not the worst climate though.

[Satellite_Anthem]

It's a lot like a colder version of Denver. Summer nights are ok at the downtown station, but too chilly for me at the airport. It would be tough to grow tomatoes with freezes possible in July.

[Teegurr]

D. Winters are a little too long and cold and summers are little on the cool side. However, precipitation isn't excessive like in Quebec, so the winters are not too bad.