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In another thread we were discussing how the Yukon is quite mild for its latitude in terms of the average temperature, but when she gets cold, she gets #%@! cold. This had me thinking about how some areas of the world see very little temperature deviation while others see huge deviations. In the Yukon, the standard deviation in January is over 7 degrees C (13°F), while places on the BC coast have a deviation of less than 0.5°C (1°F) in October and July.
I'm not looking for the highest STD deviation per se, but that is a good place to start when looking for locations the extreme maximum or minimum has veered far from their respective averages.
As much as I've been critical of Environment Canada's record keeping abilities, I give them top marks for providing the data they do have in a readily accessible manner. Anyone can click here, and download the Excel file for individual stations showing daily 1971-2000 climate normals. Barring this, you might have to use the monthly average, or guess the daily average for your location.
Please post data for your location and/or any data more extreme than my summary below.
I looked at 2 places in the Yukon (Watson Lake and Mayo), 3 places in BC (Bella Coola, Kamloops, and Kleena Kleene), and one place in Alberta (Calgary), and summarized the most extremes for each month (based on the daily averages):
Most above normal:
Mayon, Yukon = 31.5°C (56.7°F) //Average high on January 15th = -21.4°C; temperature on Jan 15th, 1981 = 10.1°C (50.2°F)
Note: Mayo has been more than 30°C above normal 4 times - 2x in Jan '81 and 2 times in Jan '42.
Most below normal:
Mayo, Yukon = 33.7°C (60.7°F) //Average low on February 3rd = -28.5°C; temperature on Feb 3rd, 1947 = -62.2°C (-80°F)
Note: Mayo has been more than 30°C below normal 7 times - 2x in Feb; 2 times in April; 3 times in December. 6 of them were in the 1940s and one of them was in the 1930s.
Month-by-month
Jan max = Mayo at 31.5°C
Jan min = Watson Lake at 31.3°C
Feb max = Mayo at 27°C
Feb min = Mayo at 33.7°C
Mar max = Calgary at 18.7°C
Mar min = Mayo at 28.7°C
Apr max = Calgary at 16.4°C
Apr min = Mayo at 30.8°C
May max = Kleena Kleene at 19.6°C
May min = Mayo at 22.8°C
Jun max = Mayo at 15.3°C
Jun min = Mayo at 11.8°C
Jul max = Bella Coola at 17.6°C
Jul min = Mayo at 12.1°C
Aug max = Calgary at 13.0°C
Aug min = Mayo at 15.0°C
Sep max = Calgary at 16.9°C
Sep min = Calgary at 15.8°C
Oct max = Mayo at 20.0°C
Oct min = Watson Lake at 25.4°C
Nov max = Mayo at 29.7°C
Nov min = Kleena Kleene at 32.9°C //35.8 degrees below the monthly average min
Interesting. I'd imagine North America to hold most of those records, except perhaps somewhere in coastal southern Australia might rival coastal California for being above average in summer by a record amount? I vaguely remember talking about this before in another thread a while back.
The record low for England was -26.1C in Newport in 1982 where the average low for mid January is probably 1 or 2C, so I'd say a deviation from the norm of about 27.5C - I'd guess that's the biggest deviation either way anywhere in this country has ever recorded. We've had 29C in London in mid-April before back in the 1940s, which would be about 15C above average and roughly as big a positive deviation as we would ever get.
Oymyakon has been 35.5°C above average in December. (according to wikipedia)
Ho Lee stinking nutzoid, their average daily high of -42°C is insanely cold! The coldest place in Canada, Eureka, has an average high 11°C higher than that!
Interesting. I'd imagine North America to hold most of those records, except perhaps somewhere in coastal southern Australia might rival coastal California for being above average in summer by a record amount? I vaguely remember talking about this before in another thread a while back.
The record low for England was -26.1C in Newport in 1982 where the average low for mid January is probably 1 or 2C, so I'd say a deviation from the norm of about 27.5C - I'd guess that's the biggest deviation either way anywhere in this country has ever recorded. We've had 29C in London in mid-April before back in the 1940s, which would be about 15C above average and roughly as big a positive deviation as we would ever get.
Many places in southern Australia have recorded 20C or more above average in summer, including Sydney and Melbourne.
Highest deviation I can think of is Avalon (near Geelong), then Eulca and Albany in WA, at 21.7C and 21.6C respectively.
Wikipedia shows Verkhoyansk having some months with maxes and mins more than 30C off average as well. Though the average temperatures change so much it might only be 20C off the daily average.
My best guess would be Siberia or the Yukon for largest negative deviation. Possibly largest positive too, since winters are so cold.
Places in the US could be contenders too, the great plains and center of the state in general see wide temperature swings. Same with the Canadian prairies. Largest positive in summer, I'm not sure. Maybe somewhere in Siberia. Australia might win it.
Nowata, OK reached -31F/-35C on Feb 10, 2011. Average low is about 26F/-3C. It reached 79F/26C a week later.
Browning, MT reached -56F/-49C on Jan 24, 1916. Average low is about 4F/-15C. The place is notable for the temperature dropping 100F in 24 hours, from 44F the day before.
Parshall, ND -60F/-51C on Feb 15, 1936. Average low -1F/-18C, though the month averaged -16F.
West Yellowstone, MT -66F on Feb 9, 1933. Average low -1F/-18C.
A lot of the low temperature records for many states are probably of similar deviations, at least 40F below normal, many look closer to 50 or possibly more, but probably not 60 degrees. Alaska might have some places.
Hottest relative to normal for US is probably somewhere in Alaska in midwinter, Fairbanks has hit 11C in January with an average high of -17C. Summer maybe ND, Steele apparently reached 121F/50C in 1936 when it averaged about 82F/28C, but it has only reached 110F/43C in May 1934, Jul 1934, Jul 1936, not since then. (It apparently reached -50F/-45C in February 1936, 1936 was a rough year)
The -58C/-73F in Iroquois Falls, ON is around 60F/34C below normal if the Wikipedia data is right.
Edit: Eureka, Nunavut has an average high -33.7C in February, record high -1.1C. April of all months has the lowest record high of -2.8C.
The coldest temperature recorded in Sweden was -53.0°C on 13th December 1941... The average low for that place probably lies around -16°C (maybe even warmer) so it would be a deviation of ~37°C
I'm surprised about Eureka having such high maxes!
January max in Eureka = 32.9°C above the average Jan 23rd high (average high = -34; record high = -1.1°C)
February max in Eureka = 33.4°C above the average Feb 5th high (average high = -34.5; record high = -1.1°C)
March max in Eureka = 27.6°C above the average Mar 1st high (average high = -35.6; record high = -8.0°C)
**Wow, the temperature doesn't' bottom out up there until March!
April max in Eureka = 22.0°C above the average Apr 12th high (average high = -33.4; record high = -3.1°C)
October max in Eureka = 22.3°C above the average Oct 26th high (average high = -22.3; record high = 0°C)
Last edited by Glacierx; 10-18-2013 at 08:18 PM..
Reason: made error about min.
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