Winter 2013/14 Summary

The coldest winter in 20 years, but (perhaps) surprisingly not that wet

Very cold, that is all that really needs to be said about this winter.  At 4 degrees below average it was the coldest winter we have seen in the region since 1993/94.  What also made it feel colder was the fact that we didn’t see the typical thaws that we often get in January or February.  This also meant that pretty much all the snow that fell since October was there in the snowbanks for the entire winter for all to look at every day.

In the media stories about this winter I have seen reports varying from the coldest winter in 20 years to the coldest in 38 years.  It really depends on the station you are looking at as the 1993/94 winter was just a little colder than this past one so I think that is the reason for the variation in the records.

It was pretty wet during the first half of the winter, but then the second half was very dry.  The total precipitation was 165.3 mm which is less than the average of 184.5 mm, but enough to be within the average range.

As it strange to talk about the snow just during the winter season, for the entire snowfall season we have had 164 cm compared to the average at this time of year of 148.5 cm.  So above average but not really by that much.


Summary for Winter 2013/14:
Maximum Temperature 9.8°C
Minimum Temperature -31.2°C
Average Daily High Temperature -4.6°C (Long term average –1.4°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -14.9°C (Long term average -9.8°C)
Total Precipitation 137.8 mm (Long term average 184.5 mm)


(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)

February 2014 Summary

The coldest February since 1979 that was also dry

It was a very cold month, more than 5 degrees below average making it the coldest February since 1979.  There was only a brief few days above 0 and the rest of the time it was not just a little cold but very cold. Overall it was the most below average of any month in the 16 year history of the UW weather station.

The low of -31.2 on February 12th was the coldest temperature since January 27th, 2005 when it was -32.2 and the second lowest February temperature I was able to find in the region (the coldest being all the way back in 1934).

The month started off a bit wet, but then it was pretty dry for the rest of the month putting the total of 30.6 mm below average overall.  The 44.0 cm of snow in February was more than the 30.5 cm average.  It may be surprising to know that the 147.5 cm of total snowfall really isn’t that much more than the average for this point in the season of 141.5 cm.

As we have now passed meteorological winter (the months of December, January, and February) the numbers for temperature show that it was the coldest met winter since 1977.


Summary for February 2014:
Maximum Temperature 4.4°C
Minimum Temperature -31.2°C
Average Daily High Temperature -5.9°C (Long term average -1.9°C)
Average Daily Low Temperature -17.2°C (Long term average -10.5°C)
Total Precipitation 30.6 mm (Long term average 52.6 mm)

(Long term averages based on 1971-2000 data for the Waterloo Wellington Airport)