WESTERN PRODUCER — Every year I receive a couple of emails about this topic and hear conversations about it. I’m always surprised that most people do not know that March and April have recorded most of the biggest snowstorms across the Prairies.
As warm moist air begins its yearly push northward, cold air from the Arctic sometimes has a hard time letting go. When the two combine, we can get some truly big snowstorms.
In this look back at these spring snowstorms, I will once again rely on the main centres in Manitoba (Dauphin, Brandon and Winnipeg), Saskatchewan (Regina and Saskatoon) and Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton) because these locations tend to capture most of the significant weather events that affect our region.
Also, to tell the truth, I just don’t have the time to go through all the weather records. Given the nature of snowstorms, in that they tend to cover very large areas, these stations tend to do a very good job of capturing the big picture.
For this week, let’s investigate Alberta’s numbers.
For this region, I just looked at April storms, mainly because there have been so many big storms in April.
Starting off with Calgary, the biggest April snowstorm I was able to find occurred in 1932, when from April 20-21 an amazing 49.3 centimetres of snow fell.
Then, only one year later, a storm hit on April 15 and lasted through to April 17. During this storm, nearly 46 cm of snow fell.
Another more-than-40-cm snowstorm occurred in 1966 from April 25-27, when 45 cm fell.
More recently, in 2003, 38.5 cm of snow fell from April 26-28. This storm recorded the second largest one-day snowfall total for April, when 32.2 cm fell on April 26.
Above average precipitation – This map shows the departure from average precipitation across the Prairies so far this winter. With winter slowly coming to a close, we can see that a large portion of the region saw above-average precipitation, with the driest region located in southeast Saskatchewan, western Manitoba, and southeastern Manitoba.
The largest single day snowfall total for April occurred during the 1932 storm, when on April 21 an absolutely amazing 45.7 cm of snow fell.
Further north, in the Edmonton region, the number of spring snowfalls is not as great as the Calgary region, but Edmonton has still seen its fair share of large April snowstorms.
The largest one occurred in 1955, when from April 18-20 a whopping 47.5 cm of snow fell.
Yet another big April storm hit in 1948 when 43 cm of snow fell from April 1-3.
The third biggest storm occurred a bit more recently in April 6-7 1991, when nearly 41 cm of snow fell, with more than 36 cm falling on April 6. This is currently the second largest one-day snowfall record for April.
The largest one-day total occurred on April 19, 1955, when 38 cm fell.
The most recent big snow event was in 2002 when 28 cm fell from April 14-15.
As the statistics point out, some of the largest snowstorms to hit our part of the world have occurred in March or April. I sure hope we don’t see this happen again this year, but as the weather goes, you just never know.
Daniel Bezte is a teacher by profession with a BA in geography, specializing in climatology, from the University of Winnipeg. He operates a computerized weather station near Birds Hill Park, Man. Contact him at dmgbezte@gmail.com.