2025/03/31

March 2025 Review

March 2025 weather in Edmonton was all over the place, so it's time for our big look back...

It may not have felt like it, but March 2025 was fairly warm.

The average High of 3.7°C was the 36th warmest on record, and average Low of -5.7°C was 22nd warmest. That wasn't super warm, but it was the warmest March since 2021





High Temperatures
We're all probably going to remember the giant snowstorm, but March 2025 started warm, dipped a bit in the middle, got warm again, and then came the snow. In the end 19 Highs were above average, and 12 were below.

March averages 20 above-freezing Highs, and 2025 had 25. 

March averages 4 10°C Highs, and 2025 had 4. 

March also averages 3 Highs below -10°C, but the coldest 2025 got was -9.6°C. 

March usually gets warmer as it progresses, but 2025's warm days were mostly at the start.



Low Temperatures
March 2025 ends up with 21 above-average Lows, and 10 below. The warmest was 0.8°C on the 24th, and the coldest was -17.4°C on the 14th.

March averages around 2 -20°C Lows, and the closest that 2025 got was -17.4°C.

At the other end it averages 3 above-freezing Lows, and 2025 had 3.



Warm & Cold Months
March 2025 gets medium-sized orange bubbles. 

The average High of 3.7°C was 2.7°C warmer than the 20th century average. 

The average Low of -5.7°C was 3.7°C warmer.

That follows the colder-than-average February, and warmer-than-average January (modern Januarys always are)



The Horserace
After 3 months 2025 ranks as our 31st warmest year on record, at 0.7°C above the 20th century average.

Broken into Highs & Lows, the Highs are 39th warmest and Lows are 24th.



Across Canada
March was warmer than the 20th century average across the whole country. 

Dawson City was the big standout with an average High 5.5°C above its 20th century average, while Victoria's 0.1°C was at the bottom. Edmonton's 2.7°C above average was middle of the pack.



Snow
In March we average around 20cm of snowfall, and 2025 was up at 36.7cm. 

That made it the airport's 5th snowiest March on record. (no one wants to think about it, but we average another 15cm in April, and 5cm in May)

By this point of the winter we average 100cm of snowfall, and the snowy March pushed us just over that with 105cm.

For a whole winter we average around 120cm, but we've still got April & May to go.

Across the country Charlottetown's 397cm makes it the snowiest of the big cities (and that's really low for them). 

Most cities here had a pretty average winter, although Calgary's 72.3cm is its lowest since 2015-2016. But they average another ~30cm in April & May.



Big Storms
Charlottetown, Edmonton, Moncton, Ottawa, Halifax & Calgary all got big storms in the final week of March. 

Ottawa got 25.2cm on the 28th & 29th, Edmonton got 24cm on the 27th & 28th, and Charlottetown got 18.8cm just on the 27th.

24cm over 2-days is a pretty big storm for Edmonton. It was the biggest since May 5th & 6th 2003. 

The airport has only had 10 other 2-day storms get to 24cm. Although all of the record storms are 40cm+.



Snowdepth
Late February and early March saw a lot of melting. Stony Plain got down to 0cm on March 3rd, and the airport was down to 1cm by March 23rd.

But the big storm changed all that, pushing stations back up around 20cm or 30cm.

Quite a few years get down to 0cm snowdepth around the end of March. But we will need to see how long it takes all of this new stuff to melt off.

Across the country Dawson City, Saskatoon, Edmonton & Ottawa all still have a lot of snow on the ground, although Edmonton & Ottawa both jumped back up from basically zero due to the late storms.



April
For April, on average we only get 2 Highs below 0°C, although 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.