Yellowknife waits for first snow after one of its driest Octobers ever

Yellowknife just had its driest October since 1948. The city is still waiting for its first measurable snow of the season.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) recorded 6.5 mm of precipitation at the Yellowknife airport in October, all of it being rain. That makes last month the second-driest October since records began in 1942.

Only October 1948, with 5.5 mm, was drier. The third driest was October 1969 at 8.5 mm.

ECCC meteorologist Chloe Katsademas told Cabin Radio almost all of this October’s precipitation came from one low-pressure system that brought 5.7 mm of rain on October 4. The airport recorded another 0.4 mm on each of October 5 and October 16. Since then, the airport station has recorded no measurable precipitation.

Katsademas said weather systems kept “missing” Yellowknife through October. Low-pressure systems tracked along the Beaufort Sea to the north, while others passed to the south.

Yellowknife sat in between, under high pressure with little airflow. That brought dry, mild weather and only a little moisture. 

“Inuvik got blasted with every single system, while Yellowknife got none of them,” Katsademas said. Inuvik had one of its wettest Octobers on record. 

Katsademas said a system that mostly passed north of Yellowknife on October 18 and 19 may have brought a small amount of precipitation that the airport station didn’t record. Even so, the month is officially listed as the second driest on record. 

Still waiting for snow

Yellowknife’s first snowfall typically arrives in early October. According to ECCC, the average date between 1991 and 2020 was October 3.

The snow-free weather did have one perk for Yellowknife families: children could trick-or-treat on Halloween without having to bundle up in snowsuits underneath their costumes. But the lack of snow is still unusual for early November.

No measurable snow has fallen yet. Katsademas said the cause is the lack of precipitation, not warmth. Temperatures were low enough that any precipitation during the final 10 days of October would likely have fallen as snow, she said.

“You don’t have any snow yet because there just hasn’t been any [precipitation],” she said. 

Katsademas said 2021 was another late year, with little snowfall in Yellowknife until around November 8 after a light dusting in early October. Cabin Radio reported at the time on that year’s “green Halloween.”

First snow could come Sunday

Yellowknife could finally see its first measurable snowfall this weekend. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s forecast shows a 30-percent chance of showers on Thursday as a low-pressure system develops northwest of the city.

Temperatures on Thursday are expected to stay above zero, meaning any precipitation would likely fall as rain. By Sunday and Monday, however, Katsademas said snow becomes more likely. 

The system is still too far out to predict how much precipitation Yellowknife could receive, and some of it may once again track north and east of the city.