Edmonton on way to new snowfall record for Sept. 21

Edmonton is on its way to the snowiest Sept. 21 since 1968, says Dan Kulak, meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Not what most people wanted to see on the last full day of summer, perhaps.

Yet, while "90 per cent of the people find this inconvenient," there may be some dogs and kids who are just loving the snow, Kulak said with a chuckle.

Snow on the last day of summer

6 years ago

Duration 0:20

In the past 20 years, Edmonton's late-summer weather has run the gamut from blizzards to 33 C temperatures.The record snowfall measured at the Edmonton International Airport is 3.6 centimetres, set in 1968.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, the airport had recorded three centimetres, he said.

"If it keeps on accumulating out therethen, yeah, that three-point-six will be eclipsed," Kulak said. "Obviously it's not going to take much more to get past it."

Police logged 16 collisions between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., said Cheryl Voordenhout, spokesperson for the Edmonton Police Service.

That total includes one hit-and-run and one injury accident, she said.

The weather in the city could be worse.

The record snowfall for Sept. 20 is 12.7 centimetres and for Sept. 22 it is 22 centimetres, Kulak said.

Edmonton is not expected to come close to breaking tomorrow's record, with only two centimetres of snow in the forecast, he said.

Temperatures are expected to climb back into the teens early next week, he said.

Meteorologists don't use the solstice and equinox to measure when a season ends and another begins, but look instead at the calendar, Kulak said.

"September, October, November, that's the fall period," he said.

December, January and February make up winter, while March, April and May are spring and June, July and August are summer.

Based on that, and looking at the overall weather pattern for Edmonton, summer actually ended at about 2 p.m. on Aug. 23, he said.

"We've just been bouncing around with the odd warm day and a lot of cool days since then."