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.

February 2025 Review

February 2025 weather in Edmonton was quite the rollercoaster. So let's buckle up and enjoy the ride...

If you are reading this from the future, the dashboards in these posts tend to break pretty easily, and may no longer match with the text. An archive of the post with the original images is on bluesky.

 

February 2025 ended up pretty cool. 

The average High of -7.9°C was the 111th warmest on record, and average Low of -17.4°C was 98th warmest. 

That's a bit cooler than 2018, a bit warmer than 2021 & 2014, and a lot warmer than 2019 which was a bottom-5 February for us.

February used to be our 2nd or 3rd coldest month - much warmer than January, but swapping back & forth with December. 

But January has warmed up a lot (~9°C!), while February is only up by 3~4°C. 

So for 10-year averages, February has recently been our coldest month.





High Temperatures

February was a weird month: well below average from the 1st to the 19th, and then right at the top of our range from the 22nd to the end of the month. 

That's 19 below-average Highs, and 9 above-average, including a new record of 12.5°C on the 22nd.

February averages 12 above-freezing Highs. 

 2025 only got to 9, all at the end of the month. But that included 8 5°C Highs (average is 4), and 3 10°C Highs (average is less than 1). 

It also had 3 -20°C Highs (average is 1). 

The warmest was 12.5°C and coldest was -23.9°C.





Warm Days

Somewhat surprisingly, February 2025 had 7 Highs in-a-row reach 8°C, which is tied for the 2nd most on record for February. 1954 & 1916 both got to 8. 

The 3 10°C Highs were also pretty unusual, although several years had 4 or 5, and 1889 got to 6.

For "warm" days from December-February we had 41 above-freezing Highs, or about 45% of the time. The average is around 37 days. 

18 (20%) of those got to 5°C, which is pretty typical for recent years, but our long-term average is closer to 14.



Low Temperatures

February's Lows were pretty cold up to the 20th, with 3 as the coldest in 30 years. 

Then they were pretty warm, with a new record of 0.3°C on the 23rd. 

Overall 20 Lows were below-average, and 8 were above.

February averages around 6 -20°C Lows, and 2025 had 13. 

That included 11 below -25°C when the average is only 2. The coldest was -30.3°C on the 18th. 

And because it was a weird month it also had 3 above-freezing Lows, which is the most since 2017.



The Deepfreeze 

We talked about the deepfreeze in detail here. 

February 2025 had 20 Lows below -17°C in-a-row, and 20 Highs below -6 in-a-row, which were both the longest streaks since 1996. But it was a bit of a baby deepfreeze compared to February 2019.



Cold Days So Far

We're near the end of our deepfreeze season, although -20°C Lows sometimes show up throughout March. But right now we've had 19, which is below our average of around 25. 

That includes 14 -25°C Lows, which is more than our average of 11.

Even -30°C Lows can sneak into the first week of March. But right now we've had 1, which is the the fewest since 2016-2017.

The last 7 winters have all had at least 3 of them, with 2023-2024 getting to 5.



Warm & Cold Months

2025 gives us another a blue/cold February, along with 2021, 2019, 2018, 2014... 

The average High of -7.9°C was -3°C colder than the 20th century average. The average Low of -17.4°C was -2.2°C colder.



The Horserace

2 months into 2025, and we're a bit warmer than the 20th century average. January pushed us way up, then the deepfreeze dragged us back down, with a little bounce back at the end. That puts 2025 as the 37th warmest overall.



Across Canada

February was colder than average across a lot of the country. 

Dawson City was the big standout with a High 3.2°C above its 20th century average, while Calgary was at the bottom at -5.9°C below theirs.

In Edmonton, February 2025 was much warmer than 2019, and was a bit warmer than 2021 & 2014. 

In Calgary February 2025 was also much warmer than 2019, but compared to 2021 & 2014 it was in the same range or even a bit colder.



Snow

In February we average around 14cm of snowfall, which typically makes it the least snowy of the big winter months. 

And February 2025 was well below that with only 4.5cm, and 8 snowy days.

By this point of the winter we average 80cm of snowfall. 

This winter we're a little low, with 69cm.

Across the country Charlottetown is way up at 353cm, well above 2nd place Ottawa's 209cm.

Big Storms

Edmonton had no February storms to speak of, but Montréal had two 30cm+ days on the 13th and 16th, and Ottawa got 27cm & 33cm.

Ottawa's 109cm was their 3rd snowiest February on record. 

Montréal's 106cm was their 7th snowiest. 

Toronto's 78cm was also their 2nd snowiest. 

(and keep in mind that so far Edmonton has only gotten 69cm over the entire winter)



Snowdepth

At the end of February we average 22cm of snowdepth. Most of the month was well above average, but the late warmspell caused some melting. 

Elk Island fell from 46cm to 35cm, the airport fell from 36cm to 13cm, and Stony Plain fell from 27cm to 8cm.

On average our snowdepth starts to drop after the first week of March. 

A lot of winters are basically snowfree by the end of March, although some (like 2023, 2020 & 2018) hang on until mid-April. 

April almost always gets snow, but it doesn't stick around.

Across the country the snowdepth really jumped up in Charlottetown, Ottawa, Moncton, Quebec City, and Toronto. Montréal saw a bump too, although only up to 30cm, even though it got 97cm of snowfall.

This is a closer look at the snowdepth for the Ontario and Quebec cities, along with their recent histories (and also a comparison to slow & steady Edmonton).



March

March averages 20 days with Highs above freezing. It's often when we start to hit 10°C, although we've already had 3 of those.

However, it also averages 3 -20°C Lows, and 20cm of snowfall.