Every year I receive a couple of emails about spring snowstorms, or have conversations about them — and I am surprised that most people do not know that March and April have recorded most of the biggest snowstorms across the Prairies.
Along with November, these months tend to see some of the biggest snowstorms of the year.
As warm moist air begins its annual push northwards, cold air from the arctic sometimes has a hard time letting go. When they combine, we can get some truly big snowstorms.
Read Also
Farmer gift idea: How about a weather station?
The 2025 holiday season is looming, and a home weather station might make a great Christmas gift for farmers
In this look back at these spring snowstorms I will once again rely on some key population centres in the three provinces, as these locations tend to capture most of the significant weather events that affect our region.
In Manitoba I looked at Dauphin, Brandon and Winnipeg. For Saskatchewan it was Regina and Saskatoon, and in Alberta it was Calgary and Edmonton. Given the nature of snowstorms, and how they tend to cover very large areas, these stations tend to do a very good job of capturing the big picture.
Over the last 140 years there have been 12 times that Winnipeg has recorded 20 cm of snow or more on a single day in the month of March. The most recent being March 8, 1999 when 20.0 cm of snow fell. The largest March snowstorm that I was able to find occurred back in 1935 when 53.1 cm of snow fell between March 3 and 6. Interestingly, the next largest snowstorm occurred at nearly the same time (March 4) in 1966, when 35.6 cm of snow fell. Winnipeg has recorded some of their greatest snowstorm totals in April, with five days having snowfall greater than 20 cm. The two largest April snowstorms over the past 140 years have occurred recently. Both storms occurred early in the month, with the 1997 storm recording 46 cm of snow between April 4 and 6. Nearly the same amount (45 cm) fell between April 1 and 4 of 1999.
Since 1890, Brandon has recorded 16 days with snowfall greater than 20 cm in March. The most recent occurrence was on March 24 and 25, 2018 when 28.6 cm of snow fell. The largest March snowstorm that I was able to find was in 1953, when 39.3 cm of snow fell between March 26 and 28. April in Brandon has also seen its fair share of large snowfalls. During this month there have been nine days with more than 20 cm of snow recorded, with the most recent occurring on April 27, 1984, when 29.7 cm fell. The largest springtime snowstorm I was able to find occurred back on April 26, 1961 when a whopping 47 cm of snow fell in just one day. The next largest spring snowstorm occurred on April 26 to 27, 1984, when the Brandon region saw nearly 36 cm of snow fall.
To round out our records is the city of Dauphin. Unlike their massive fall snowstorms, Dauphin’s higher elevation seems to work against them for springtime storms. This makes sense, because as warm air streams northwards in the spring, the higher elevation in this region allows the warmer air to mix down to the surface easier, keeping temperatures warmer and precipitation in the liquid state longer — which means less snow.
Given that Dauphin is missing a lot of years of snowfall data, I am not sure how many days they have recorded 20 cm or more of snow. While precipitation data is available, it often doesn’t indicate how much of the precipitation actually fell as snow. That said, I did go through the available snowfall data and pulled out some significant snowfall events. The most recent event I could find occurred on March 1, 2006 when 25.5 cm fell. The biggest spring snowstorm ever recorded in Dauphin that I could find in the records was 29 cm that fell on March 6 and 7, 1983. In April there have been a couple of big storms. The first occurred between April 19 and 21 in 1967, when 26 cm of snow fell. Coming in basically tied for first was the snowstorm of April 26 and 27, 1961, when the Dauphin region saw another 26 cm of snow.
Moving on to Saskatchewan, according to my research, this province hasn’t seen a really big spring storm in a long while. If I missed one, let me know as there are a few years of bad data. Starting off with Regina, the biggest spring storm I was able to find was when 35.5 cm of snow fell from March 15 to 17 in 1927. The next biggest one was a 26.9 cm dump that occurred from March 13 to 16 in 1943. The final one occurred on April 11 and 12 of 1979 when 26.6 cm fell. Saskatoon, surprisingly, had a few more bigger spring snowstorms. The largest was the same storm that hit Regina in 1927 but in Saskatoon 39.5 cm of snow fell. The next largest was when 33.3 cm fell from March 29 to 31 in 1938.
For Alberta, I just looked at April storms, because so many of their big storms were in that month. Starting off with Calgary, the biggest April snowstorm I was able to find occurred back in 1932, when between April 20 and April 21 an amazing 49.3 cm of snow fell. Then, only one year later, an April storm hit on April 15 and lasted through to April 17, bringing nearly 46 cm of snow. Another huge storm occurred in 1966 between April 25 and 27 when 45 cm fell. More recently, back in 2003, between April 26 and the 28, 38.5 cm of snow fell. This storm recorded the second-largest one day snowfall total for April when 32.2 cm fell on April 26. 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 large, but the area has still seen its fair share of large April snowstorms. The largest April snowstorm occurred in 1955, when between April 18 and 20 a whopping 47.5 cm of snow fell. Yet another big April storm hit in 1948 when 43 cm of snow fell between April 1 and 3. The third biggest storm occurred a bit more recently, on April 6 and 7 of 1991, when nearly 41 cm of snow fell, with over 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 2 8cm fell on April 14 and 15.
As the stats 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!
