March 2026 Review

It's time for our look back at Edmonton's weather for March 2026, which probably felt disappointing, but which wasn't actually too unusual.

March 2026 was a little cold, but not by too much. 

The average High of 1.1°C was the 69th warmest on record. The average Low of -9.6°C was 76th. 

That's below 2025 & 2022, but above 2024 & 2023. Our last really warm March was 2021, and the last really cold one was 2014.



High Temperatures

March's Highs bounced around. 

We had a few really warm days around the 7th and 17th, and a bunch of average or cold ones. 

Overall 16 Highs were above average, with 15.2°C on the 17th as the warmest. 15 were below average, with -9.6°C on the 25th as the coldest.

March averages 20 above-freezing Highs, and 2026 got 19. 

9 of those got to 5°C, when the average is around 12. 

And 4 got to 10°C when we average 4. 

We also got one 15°C High on the 17th, while a lot of the time those need to wait until April.

Low Temperatures

March's Lows also bouced around. The warmest was 2.4°C on the 7th, and the coldest was 19.9°C on the 13th, narrowly missing a March -20°C. 

Overall 13 Lows were above average, and 18 were below.

March averages 1 Low of -20°C, and 2026 didn't get any, although it did get close. 

It also averages 3 above-freezing Lows, and we got 4. 

The month did end with a string of Lows from -10°C to -15°C, and typically we're done with those by now.



Cold Days

It looks like the winter of 2025-2026 will end with 25 -20°C Lows. That's average, although the only recent winter with more was 2021-2022's 32. 

We got to -25°C 11 times, which is right on average. 

And no -30°C Lows for the first time since 2016-2017 (although we did get close).



Warm & Cold Months

March 2026's Highs get a tiny warm/orange bubble here because the average High of 1.1°C was 0.2°C warmer than the 20th century average. 

The average Low of -9.6°C was actually -0.1°C colder. 

But both 2023 & 2020 (covid March) were even colder.



Across Canada

Across the country March was a mix of above and below average. Dawson City was -6.8°C below their 20th century average, and Winnipeg was -1.3°C below theirs. The most above average was Calgary, at 2.6°C above their 20th century average.

Snow

Everyone wants winter to be over, but March is one of our big winter months averaging 20cm of snow and 9 snowy days. 

In 2026 the airport was right on average with 19.2cm. 

And in April & May together we average another 19cm.

March's snowiest day was the 29th with 5.2cm. 

Although March's big storms are dwarfed by our extra-snowy December.

By the end of March we average 100cm of total snowfall. 

This winter we're up to 118.7cm. 

For a whole winter we average around 120~125cm, so we're close, but we do average another 19cm in April & May.



Snow Across Canada

This chart is pretty messy, but it is the snow totals so far across the country.

St. John's is way out in the lead over 450cm. Halifax, Ottawa & Charlottetown are all above 250cm, and Toronto, Moncton & Montréal are over 200cm.

After a pretty quiet winter, Calgary got 47.8cm of snow in March, which is its 7th snowiest March on record.

And Calgary had March's biggest snowday, with 17.8cm on the 25th. 

The rest of the biggest storm were all on the easy coast again. St. John's had a 17cm day, and Charlottetown & Halifax both had 3 days above 10cm.



Snowdepth

We do sometimes get to 0cm of snowdepth before the end of March, although it might not last. 

The airport had "trace amounts" on March 20th, but the late snow pushed it back up. 

At the end of March the airport has 10cm while Blatchford is still up at 29cm.



April

For April, on average we only get 2 Highs below 0°C, although 2022, 2020 & 2018 started quite cold. 

Most Aprils reach 20°C, and 2001, 2015, 2016 & 2018 all got to 25°C. But April still averages 15 Lows below freezing, and 15cm of snow.