It’s time to take a break from all the different weather topics we have been looking at and focus on how March measured up and how the winter of 2025-26 compared to the long-term averages.
Let’s start our look back with March.
If you thought it was a colder than average month, then you were right. With the exception of Calgary, all of the main reporting stations reported colder than average temperatures.
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Calgary had the warmest actual mean temperature for the month followed by Edmonton.
Interestingly, the coldest reading was also in Alberta, with Peace River coming in at a very chilly -12.9 C.
Looking at the difference from average, we can see that Calgary was the only location that came in above average, with Regina and Edmonton coming in only slightly below average.
Central Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba were well below average with mean monthly temperatures running two to three degrees below average.
Looking at precipitation, Alberta was the wet spot in March, with all three locations reporting above average amounts. Calgary came in as the wettest spot with about 30 millimetres of precipitation, which was 12 mm above average.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported slightly below to well below average amounts.
Saskatoon was the driest location with only 11.6 mm, while Brandon was the driest compared to average, coming in at 12 mm below its long-term average.
Overall, it was a cooler than average March across the Prairies, with near to above average precipitation across Alberta and near to below average precipitation across Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Now it’s time to see how the extended winter of 2025-26 turned out when we compare it to the long-term averages.
Looking at the mean temperature for the November to March time frame, Calgary was the warm spot, coming in at -3.3 C, while Peace River was the cold spot at -12.9 C.
What was interesting was how similar Saskatoon and the Manitoba stations were, all coming within half a degree of -11 C.
If we compare these temperatures to the long-term average, it becomes a bit more of mixed bag.
Dauphin and Saskatoon came in slightly below average, Winnipeg, Brandon and Edmonton came in slightly above average and Calgary and Regina came in solidly above average.
Precipitation this past winter, at least according to the data from these stations, was mostly below average.
All the stations but one reported below average values with amounts ranging from 62 per cent of average in Winnipeg to 88 per cent in Peace River. Calgary was the exception, coming in at 116 per cent of average.
So overall, the winter of 2025-26 saw near to above average temperatures except for Alberta’s Peace River region, which saw below average temperatures.
Precipitation was generally below average but not severely, with only the Calgary region reporting slightly above average amounts.
