Environment Canada can't confirm record-breaking snowfall in Windsor

Environment Canada doesn't know for sure if a snowfall record was broken in Windsor because they don't track snowfall amounts in the area anymore.

Severe weather meteorologist Monica Vaswani said the closest she could pull data from was London's tracker.

"It did snow pretty steadily in Windsor, but unfortunately the auto station in the area does not report snowfall totals for us," said Vaswani, adding that 11 centimetres of snowfall was recorded in London.

The previously-recorded Windsor record was 10.4 centimetres, from 1984. Vaswani said Windsor switched to be an 'Automated Weather Observation System' station in the past few years, but did not have an exact date.

Andrew Puntch, a volunteer citizen scientist, recorded 15.2 centimetres at his Dresden home, which he added to a Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network map.

Jo Lynn Sheane
Jo Lynn Sheane

Environment Canada uses data recorded by citizen volunteers like Puntch to add to the information it collects at its own weather stations.

Allan Taverner, who has been measuring data for about nine years, recorded 23.9 centimetres of snow on Longfellow Avenue in Windsor. He added his measurement to the map.

Other snowfall reports on the CoCoRaHS map include 24.6 centimetres on Gladstone Avenue, 19.1 centimetres on Randolph Avenue, 19.6 centimetres in Tecumseh and 14 centimetres in Morpeth.

All school board-provided transportation was cancelled for the day.

"It's a little bit on the early side, to see this much accumulating snowfall in early November," said Vaswani.

Environment Canada does still track temperature at its Windsor station, and tonight's forecast is expected to break a record for cold. The forecast low Wednesday morning is –13 C. The record low temperature for Nov. 13 is –9.9 C in 1986.