Many central Albertans dug out of the latest snowstorm Thursday, but it wasn’t quite a record-setting day for the region.
That record-setting snowfall mark in the Red Deer area for Nov. 19 still stands from all the way back to 1924, according to Environment Canada, which said on that day, 10.2 centimetres were recorded.
Although in recent years, it’s no longer mandatory for regional airports to report snowfall accumulation, so the exact record might have changed more recently.
Environment Canada also says on its website that the region’s greatest snowfall for Nov. 19 between 1938 and 2013, was 9.4 centimetres in 2003.
“Nav Canada, that’s the organization that maintains observations at airports across the country, they recently got rid of a requirement to report snowfall amounts, so we don’t really have a robust network of snowfall reports,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Sara Hoffman.
“What we do rely on greatly is the reports of citizens, to the hashtag ABStorm on Twitter, or sending it in to abstorm@Canada.ca. We really depend on the public’s help for snowfall measurements.”
Hoffman said according to reports on social media, and through local outlets, the best estimate is about eight centimetres of snow fell in Red Deer and Lacombe on Thursday, with more snow the further north you travelled.
“Eight centimetres is pretty consistent with what we got with this band of snow, and it really fell perfectly between Edmonton and Red Deer,” Hoffman said.