Environment Canada reports seven centimetres of snow was recorded at the airport weather station over the last 24 hours — and the five centimetres that fell Tuesday, Sept. 11 is good for a new record, beating the 2.4 cm recorded in 1993.
Another two centimetres fell overnight, and the snow is expected to clear by noon, falling short of the record 12.7 cm that fell on Sept. 12, 1936.
Meteorologist Jim Goosen says the snow arrived thanks to "a pipeline" of cold air from the high arctic.
"The jet stream is straight from the north, right in the high arctic. It's a strong northerly flow, and it came down really quick and had no time to warm up," Goosen said.
"The sun's angle is almost at the equinox, so it's at like an early, early April sun angle — not too strong anymore."
Today's high is expected to reach just 1 C — the previous record high for the day was 1.7 C in 1936. The temperature is forecast to drop to -6 C overnight, and if it does, it would break the record -4.3 C in 1992.
We should see sun and highs of 5 C on Thursday and Friday — and there's a chance of some more snow over the weekend before temperatures approach "normal" next week, Goosen said.
The earliest snowfall on record, according to Goosen, was 13.2 cm that fell on Aug. 14, 1950.
Comment: Parts of British Columbia are already seeing snow