Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/11/2016 (1400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a flurry of discussion around Tuesday's snowfall, Winnipeggers can rest assured that Nov. 22 was the latest first "measurable" snowfall in 144 years in the city.

When the Free Press reported that Tuesday's snowfall was the latest the first snow of winter had fallen in Winnipeg since 1872, that claim received a frosty reception from some readers.

Some questioned how it could be the latest, when some felt they recalled no snow until nearly Christmas in 1997 or 1998. One reader wondered what global warming was happening in 1872 that made it the benchmark year.

Meteorologist Justin Hobson of Environment Canada shovelled through the rhetoric, explaining Wednesday that "measurable" is the criterion that needs to be highlighted when considering this snowfall record.

"Earlier this year, we've seen flakes fall, but in terms of when you could actually measure it on the ground, that (Tuesday) was the first measurable snowfall of the season this year," Hobson said. "It was the latest date on record for the first one (that could be measured)."

So, 1872 was the year that snowfall records began to be kept for Winnipeg and Nov. 22 is the latest first measurable snowfall since records for Winnipeg began to be kept.

Environment Canada says measurable snowfalls are amounts of 0.2 cm or greater.

Folks who feel like they remember no snow later than this in past years may be unaware of, or have forgotten, other events, such as snowfall at night when most people are sleeping but Environment Canada personnel are out there measuring snow.

"In those years, it (measurable snow) could have fallen overnight in October and melted and they don't remember that part. Then they don't remember a true snowfall event until around Christmas," Hobson said.

"The stats, we have them logged. Everyone's memory is different but this one really was the latest first measurable snowfall of the season. The latest date on record since 1872. So November 22, we had about three to five centimetres in the city. It was obviously greater than 0.2 centimetres so that's our first measured one of 2016."

He said first measurable snowfalls in Winnipeg usually come earlier in November and sometimes October.

Snow was measured in ranging amounts in the city, as Hobson said there was about three centimetres of snow in Charleswood and about five centimetres in St. Vital and Sage Creek areas. Around the province, there was six centimetres measured in Ste. Anne, four centimetres in Sprague, and with the highest amount of nine centimetres measured in Great Falls (Pinawa region).

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca