2021 Year-in-Review Part 2: Temperatures Across Canada

And now, it's our 2021 Year-in-Review Part 2, as we look at temperatures in 9 major cities across Canada.

Our epic 2021 Year-in-Review has 4 Parts:

• Part 1: Edmonton Temperatures
• Part 2: Temperatures in Cities Across Canada
• Part 3: Precipitation
• Part 4: Snow

Now let's take a look across Canada:

High Temperatures

For the High temperatures, 2021 is a top-10 year east of Alberta:

• Regina #8
• Winnipeg #2
• Toronto and Ottawa #5
• Montréal #3
• St. John's #7

Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary all had the summer heatdome, but the average temperature got knocked down by some cold days.

Months with below-average Highs (blue bubbles) were tough to find this year:

• February was cold for Vancouver through Toronto.
• May was a little cool for Vancouver through Regina.
• July was cool for Toronto through St. John's.
• December was cold in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

For hot Highs, it was a top-10 year for +30°C days for most of these cities with the exception of Toronto and Ottawa. And that included #1 for Edmonton and Winnipeg, #2 for Calgary and #3 for Vancouver.

 

Low Temperatures

For the Low temperatures 2021 ranged from #2 in Montréal to #26 in Toronto. For Calgary, Montréal, Ottawa and St. John's 2021 had top-10 warmest Lows.

And the months in blue with below-average Lows were:

• February in Vancouver through Toronto.
• April in Regina and Winnipeg.
• May for Ottawa through Regina.
• July in Ottawa.
• November in Toronto and Ottawa.
• December in Vancouver through Regina.

For -20°C Lows Edmonton was a little above the recent average, while the rest of the cities here were a little below.

And for -25°C and -30°C Lows Edmonton and Calgary were both a little above average, while Regina and Winnipeg were pretty typical.

 

Climate Stripes

When we combine the Highs and Lows, the overall mean temperatures for 2021 ranged from #1 warmest in Montréal to 28th warmest in Vancouver. It was top-10 for Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa and St. John's, and #11 for Toronto.

For 2021's climate stripes all of these cities are pink or red, ranging from 0.6°C warmer than the 20th century average, up to 2.3°C warmer for Montréal.

 

Montréal

2021 was Montréal's #1 warmest year overall, with an average temperature 2.3°C above the 20th century average. The only below-average month was July, which was just a little cool. That follows 2020 which was in 6th spot.

For Highs Montréal had 205 above-average days, and 160 below. That included 9 new daily records. For the Lows it had 228 above-average and 137 below, including 8 new records.

And this is how Montréal's path to its #1 warmest year went. The Highs were 3rd warmest and Lows were 2nd warmest, which combined for the warmest overall. , It was a pretty consistent climb for the whole year, but there's a bit of a flat spot visible during the fairly average July. 

 
All Cities Combined

With the data for all 9 cities smooshed together this was the 7th warmest year overall, with Highs as #4 and Lows as #9.

That brings us to the end of Part 2 of our 2021 Year-in-Review. Part 3 will be about Precipitation, and Part 4 will be snow. These charts are only a sampling of what's available, and the dashboards include the full data for all 9 cities.