Hardly any Canadian towns collect less precipitation than Duchess: 299 mm a year
On a normal July day the thermometer tops out near 26.9°C. The year is lopsided: June gets about 11 times what February does. Frosty nights outnumber those of 88% of Canadian towns. Expect about 195 frosty starts a year, days when the air falls to freezing.
Duchess has no ECCC normals station of its own: every figure here comes from Brooks, 19 km south.
A year in Duchess at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Duchess’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in Alberta beside it.
What a year in Duchess feels like
Seasons and months as ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals give them: a typical day’s high and low.
Frost on 195 days, 20°C on 116
The frost season runs September to May, and December freezes nearly every night. On about 31 nights a year the air falls below −20°C.
Frost days by month
Average days at 0°C or below
Days above 20°C by month
Average days
About 299 mm of rain and snow a year
477th wettest of 479 towns of 2,500+ in Alberta. Some 55 days a year see 1 mm of rain or snow or more.
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
About 105 cm of snow a year
Snow falls from September to May, most of all in March (about 18 cm).
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Brooks publishes no full year of snowfall, so these figures come from Queenstown, 77 km away.
Heating a home in Duchess
89% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: October to April.
Degree days add up how far each day’s mean temperature falls below 18°C over a year. That means homes here need more heating than 62% of Canadian towns.
Living with Duchess’s climate
Gardening, time outside, winter cold and summer heat, from the 1991–2020 normals.
The growing season between frosts lasts about 121 days, roughly 22 May to 21 September.
Afternoons of 17–27°C and nights of at least 8°C arrive in Jun, Jul and Aug.
Parks & trails →About 52 days a year bring a wind chill under −20, when bare skin chills fast.
Humid heat, a humidex over 30, comes on about 27 days a year.
Thirty-year normals hide the storms and the extremes: the hazards page has Duchess’s risks.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Brooks
The page’s figures are ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals for Brooks, one of its 450 normals locations.
| Distance from the town | 19 km south |
| Station altitude | 747 m |
| Completeness | at least 20 years |
| WMO standard normals | No |
| Snowfall from | Queenstown, 77 km |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −42.2°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 37.8°C |
| Average wind | 12.6 km/h on average, most often from the south |
| Next-nearest location | Queenstown, 77 km |
How Duchess compares
Compared with 2,611 towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more across Canada; the dots mark the other normals locations in Alberta.
Nearby towns’ climate
Places around Duchess whose figures come from another normals location. No closer places have figures: these lie 40–96 km from Duchess.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain & snow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duchess Brooks | 26.9°C | −15.7°C | 299 mm |
| Bassano 40 km · Queenstown | 25.0°C 1.9°C cooler | −13.7°C 2.0°C milder | 412 mm |
| Vauxhall 74 km · Vauxhall | 26.8°C about the same | −14.1°C 1.6°C milder | 299 mm |
| Special Area No. 2 96 km · Coronation | 23.8°C 3.1°C cooler | −18.8°C 3.1°C colder | 339 mm |
Duchess weather by month
Each month’s normals, 1991–2020: high, low, mean, precipitation and snowfall.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain & snow | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −3.4°C | −15.7°C | −9.5°C | 11 mm | 14 cm |
| February | −0.5°C | −13.4°C | −7.0°C | 7 mm | 14 cm |
| March | 4.7°C | −8.5°C | −1.9°C | 16 mm | 18 cm |
| April | 12.8°C | −2.2°C | 5.4°C | 20 mm | 14 cm |
| May | 18.9°C | 3.6°C | 11.3°C | 37 mm | 6 cm |
| June | 22.6°C | 8.5°C | 15.6°C | 76 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 26.9°C | 11.1°C | 19.0°C | 32 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 26.1°C | 9.9°C | 18.1°C | 33 mm | under 1 cm |
| September | 20.7°C | 4.8°C | 12.8°C | 29 mm | 2 cm |
| October | 12.9°C | −1.9°C | 5.5°C | 14 mm | 8 cm |
| November | 3.9°C | −8.8°C | −2.5°C | 15 mm | 15 cm |
| December | −2.7°C | −14.8°C | −8.8°C | 11 mm | 14 cm |
| Year | 11.9°C | −2.3°C | 4.8°C | 299 mm | 105 cm |
Two years in three, February’s average lands within 4.3°C of normal, against the steadier June
Records from 1991 to 2020: no month spans more than March, between −37.5°C (2019) and 26.6°C (2004).
Where Duchess’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: 1991–2020 normals for Brooks from ECCC’s climate data site, the nearest location with every month of temperature.
- Other locations: a location missing months of precipitation or snow is filled from the nearest that has them all, never mixed month by month.
- Comparisons: a pool of Canadian towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more, read alike; whole cities and reserves stay out of it.
- Not on this page: sunshine (no 1991–2020 normals exist for it) and any altitude adjustment, since there is no elevation for the town itself.
Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020 · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence. Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Questions about Duchess’s climate
How warm does Duchess get in summer?
Highs reach 26.9°C on an average July day; no month is warmer.
How cold does Duchess get in winter?
In January, the coldest month, the typical low is −15.7°C.
How much rain and snow does Duchess get?
Over twelve months, rain and melted snow come to 299 mm; the range runs from 7 mm in February to 76 mm in June.
Are these figures for Duchess itself?
No: Duchess has no normals location, so the figures come from Brooks, the nearest with 1991–2020 normals.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Duchess →
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).