February 2023

A very warm February with lots of precipitation

First off, a special note that this month marked the 25th anniversary of the UW Weather station.  Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the UW Weather Station over the past 25 years. We are planning an open house to celebrate later in the year, look for an announcement coming soon.

With the cold end to the month, it might be hard to remember just how warm it started out with only 2 colder than average days in the first 21.  As a result, the overall temperature was 3 degrees higher than average, this makes it the sixth warmest February in the history of weather records in the region, which go back to 1914.

As well, looking at the meteorological winter (December-January-February), the average temperature was -2.1°C.  This was the third warmest winter only behind 2001-02 and 1931-32. 

Overall, the month of February saw 85.0 mm of precipitation, well above the average of 54.9 mm, more than any month last year and the most since October 2021.  There was one particularly wet day on the ninth when we had 35.6 cm of precipitation (the fourth wettest single day in February).

With over 2 weeks during the month when we received no snow, the few storms in the last week only got the snowfall total to 22.0 cm, well below the average of 30.3 cm for February.  The total since the Fall is now 97.0 cm, which compares to 125.6 cm for this point in the snowfall season.

It is also that time of year for the annual UW Weather Station Contest where you have to guess when the first time the station’s temperature will go above 20°C.  You can get details about the contest and put in your guess here:

http://weather.uwaterloo.ca/contest_2023/contest_entry_period.asp

Summary for February 2023:

Maximum Temperature 12.3°C

Minimum Temperature -19.7°C

Average Daily High Temperature 2.2°C (Long term average -1.2°C)

Average Daily Low Temperature -7.2°C (Long term average -9.7°C)

Total Precipitation 85.0 mm (Long term average 54.9 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1981-2010 data for the Waterloo-Wellington Airport)

January 2023

A very warm January with little sun

With only a couple of days that were colder than average, it is not surprising that the month overall was 4.5 degrees above average.  This made it the fourth warmest January in the history of weather records in the region which go back over 100 years.  The last warmer one was in 2006 and then you have to go all the way back to 1932 and 1933.

Coming off a very dry year overall, it is sort of notable that the first month of this year was even just an average month for precipitation.  The total of 68.4 mm was only a bit above the average of 65.2 mm.

In the first 20 days of January we only had 4.0 cm of snow at the UW Weather Station, this is the lowest for the beginning of January since 1957.  The 17.5 cm that fell on the 26th helped put the total snowfall for the month at 35.0 cm, which is less than the average of 43.7 cm.  Overall for the snowfall season we have had 75.0 cm, below the average of 95.3 cm for this point in the season.

And one last thing, a topic of conversation last month was how cloudy and gloomy it was, particularly to start the month.  Some people didn’t think we would ever see the sun again.  This is something that is hard to quantify, but choosing an arbitrary value for incoming solar radiation, let’s call it a dreary day when it doesn’t go above 400 Watts per square metre.  This year there were 23 dreary days this January, since the UW weather station was established in 1998 (hey isn’t that 25 years ago?) this is the highest number for that month (2011 is second with 18). 

Summary for January 2023:

Maximum Temperature 4.4°C

Minimum Temperature -17.9°C

Average Daily High Temperature 0.6°C (Long term average -2.6°C)

Average Daily Low Temperature -4.5°C (Long term average -10.3°C)

Total Precipitation 68.4 mm (Long term average 65.2 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1981-2010 data for the Waterloo-Wellington Airport)

2022 Summary

University of Waterloo Weather Station Annual Summary - 2022

There was 1 big weather story for 2022: how dry it was throughout the year! 

With only 580.3 mm of precipitation, it was the sixth driest year since weather records began the region in 1914 and the lowest total precipitation since the 540.4 mm in 1963 (by the way, the lowest on record was 399.0 mm in 1937).  February was the only month that had above average precipitation, 3 months were in the average range, and the rest were all drier than average.  Anyone who had a hard time keeping a garden alive or watching their grass turn brown will remember just how dry it was, particularly during the summer.

It was only a bit drier than average for the first three months of the year, then started the pattern we would see for the rest of the 2022.  It was the driest April in the last 10 years, coming in at around 30 mm less than the average, while May was 20 mm less.

Then came the peak dryness during the months from June to September, overall for those months we had less than 40% of the average.  June and July had the least precipitation since 2007 and 2001, respectively, while July, with only 18.7 mm, was the fifth driest July on record and the least amount for any month since March of 2014.  

Continuing the pattern, August only saw a little more than half the average precipitation and was the driest since 2010.  At only 22.2 mm of precipitation, September was the fourth driest for that month since records began in the region and we have to go back to 1998 to find one with less precipitation.

Then October and November were the driest since 2008 and 2012, respectively.  December finally had very close to average precipitation, although it was close, as almost half of the month’s total came during the last two days of the month.

Looking at temperature, the year started out with a very cold January, with an overall temperature that was almost 4 degrees below average.  This was the most below average of any month since February of 2015.  The low temperature of -32.4°C on the 29th was the second lowest temperature we have seen since the UW Weather station was established back in February of 1998 (the all-time low was -35.5°C on Feb 16, 2015).

During the next few months, the temperature swung back and forth between being warmer and colder than average.  Here are a couple of notable days in first half of 2022:  The high of 25.9°C on the 24th of April was the second highest April temperature in the last 10 years.  While the high on June 21st of 34.1°C was the highest temperature since the 34.5°C on July 9, 2020 and it was also the highest June temperature since June 27, 2005 when it was 34.9°C.

The last six months of the year were much warmer at 1.2 degrees above average, with only July coming in below average (and that was only by 0.07 of a degree).

The most notable longer stretch of temperatures was a 2 week period at the end of October and the start of November when the average high was 16.3°C, which is about 8 degrees higher than the average for that period.  The high of 23.4°C on November 5th was only the fourth time on record we have seen a November temperature above 23°C.

As far as the snowfall season of 2021-22, the total was 176.5 cm, well above the average of 159.7 cm.  Between January 17 and 18, a total of 33.0 cm of snow came down, this was the second or third highest snowfall total for a single storm since we started measuring daily snowfall at the station in 2001.  The single day total for the 17th was 22.5 cm making it the highest single day total since March 9, 2005 when we had 31.5 cm.

Frank Seglenieks

weather@uwaterloo.ca
University of Waterloo Weather Station Coordinator

Summary for 2022 (averages from 1981-2010 data for the Waterloo-Wellington Airport):

Average Daily High Temperature: 13.26°C (average 12.05ºC)
Average Daily Low Temperature: 1.15°C  (average 1.94ºC)
Total Precipitation: 580.3 mm (average 916.3 mm) 

As the UW Weather Station was not operating for most of 2022 no extremes are being reported 

Click on the image below to see the temperature chart:

Click on the image below to see the precipitation chart:

December 2022 Summary

A warm December with average precipitation

Apart from a few cold days just before Christmas, it was generally at or above average for the rest of the month.  This resulted in an overall temperature that was almost one and half degrees above average and continues the pattern of warm Decembers in the past 10 years (only 2 have been colder than average).  From the graph it is also interesting to see the steady gradual rise in temperature from the 24th to the 30th.

The rain during the last days of the month (24.4 mm) brought us from below average to just above, but still within the average range.  The total came in at 73.0 mm, a little more than the average of 71.2 mm, this is only the second month this year that had more precipitation than average.  Of that total precipitation, we had 23.5 cm of snow, this compares to the average of 37.2 cm for December.

Summary for December 2022:

Maximum Temperature 10.4°C

Minimum Temperature -16.4°C

Average Daily High Temperature 1.0°C (Long term average 0.2°C)

Average Daily Low Temperature -4.9°C (Long term average -6.8°C)

Total Precipitation 73.0 mm (Long term average 71.2 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1981-2010 data for the Waterloo-Wellington Airport)

November 2022 Summary

A warm and dry November

It was a tale of two parts of the month in terms of temperature, the first 12 days had an average high of 16.4°C while for the rest of the month the average was only 3.7°C.  That first part was warm enough that the overall temperature was 1.8 degrees above average, which made it the most above average of any month this year.

It was also dry during that first half of the month, with only 15 mm in the first 15 days.  Although it was a bit wetter in the second half the total only got to 48.6 mm, a lot less than the average of 87.1 mm, and the driest November in the last 10 years.

The total precipitation for the year of 507.3 mm is well below the average of 832.9 mm.  This is now the fourth driest first 11 months of the year in the history of records in the region, which go back to 1917.

The total snowfall of 16.5 cm was a bit more than the average of 13 cm for November.

Summary for November 2022:

Maximum Temperature 23.4°C
Minimum Temperature -9.1°C
Average Daily High Temperature 8.7°C (Long term average 6.3°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -0.3°C (Long term average -1.4°C)
Total Precipitation 48.6 mm (Long term average 87.1 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1981-2010 data for the Waterloo-Wellington Airport)