u/Few-Leading-3405 — reddlx

My aussie's border collie buddy is visiting us for the day.

The last time that we recorded any precipitation was 2 weeks ago, on April 26th.

On the plus side, we are at the point of the year where the switch usually gets flipped, and our monsoon season kicks in. (dashboard)
We average around 430mm of total precipitation in a year. More than half of that (around 230mm) is during the 90 days from May 15-August 15. (dashboard)
May averages 48mm, but obviously some years are low. 2022, 2019, 2018 and 2015 were around 20mm. (dashboard)
But temperatures can get to 25°C or 30°C early in May, and in dry years that can leave things very sparky. (dashboard)

May 5th is the average day of Blatchford's final frost. So half of the time we're done, and half of the time there's more to come.

By May 11th there's still a 25% risk of frost, and by May 17th it's down to 10%. (dashboard)
In recent years 2025 was pretty late on May 16th, and 2021 waited until May 21st. While 2024, 2023 & 2022 were all done back around April 20th. (dashboard)
Blatchford is obviously not the same as the outlying areas. Although Stony Plain tends to be only a few days behind downtown. The airport, on the other hand is several weeks later. Stony Plain's 10% risk day is May 21st, while the airport's is June 10th. (dashboard)
Compared to the other prairie cities Edmonton's growing season is actually a few weeks longer. And weirdly our final spring frost is not that different from the East coast. (dashboard)

Yup, April was cold.

The average High of 8.3°C was the 111th warmest on record. The average Low of -2.6°C was 105th. That's in the same range as 2020 & 2018, and warmer than 2013. But it wasn't cold enough to be a March, which are typically around 6°C colder.
This spring just hasn't been able to string together more than a few warm days in-a-row. January had 6 5°C Highs in-a-row, and February had 12. But since then we've only had a few here or there. So winter felt more like spring than spring has so far.
In spite of the recent cold, the average date of Blatchford's final frost is just one week away, on May 6th. 2025's was pretty late on May 16st, while 2024, 2023 & 2020 were all done around April 20th.
April averages 13cm of snow, and 2026 was just a bit above average with 14.8cm. But April had 9 days with snow, while the average is only around 5.
It's tough to remember now, but the snow got a really late start this winter, waiting until November 28th. But the final melt was about as late as we get, along with other late years like 2020, 2018 & 2013.
Everyone wants the snow to be over, but in May we do average another 5cm. About half of the time May is snowfree. The other half will usually be done around the first week or so, but 2011 waited until June 4th.
For May we average a week or two above 20°C, and quite often we will reach 30°C. About a third of the time our final frost is in April, but May often has a few of frosty nights.

I try to keep things short for reddit, but there's tons more detail and images at: