There. According to Environment Canada's data for the last 10 years, this winter is 1.26 sigma colder than average, and 2.25 sigma more snow. 1.26 sigma is irrelevant; 2.25 sigma is somewhat relevant in that 95% of the time one would be 2 sigma and under. Which means an above-2-sigma outcome happens about once in 20 times. And half of those would be 2 sigma in the other direction. So a winter this cold or colder can be expected about once in ten years. Big Fucking Deal. Quit bitching and go take photos of your food.

(Later) I wrote the English explanation of the math too fast, clearly. It should say that a winter this cold or colder can be expected about once in five years (1.26 sigma), and a winter with two or more sigma of cold or snow, once in ten years. The actual probability for a winter with more snow based on the ten-year data is 2.4% or once in 41 years, which is slightly more interesting. However, as my previous study had shown, the distribution of snow is actually not Gaussian but one-tailed which means that any amount greater than (a number I haven't calculated yet) is about equally likely. I had only calculated the one-day figure which is 4", which is to say there is about a 1 in 90 chance to get more than 4" in one day (if memory serves), but the odds of getting one foot or two feet or three feet are all pretty much equal. And "1 in 90" is once every three months which would be twice per winter. Anyway I have been meaning to perform and write up a more detailed statistical analysis of snow and cold in Hay River, but I haven't got around to it. It will be on my political blog when/if I get her done.