Highlands is drier than 90% of Canadian towns: 423 mm of rain and snow a year
Expect July afternoons of about 23.5°C. A year here swings 38°C from midwinter lows to midsummer highs. Summers stay cool: July afternoons here are cooler than in 80% of Canadian towns. For walks and days out, the stretch from June to August brings highs of 21–24°C.
Read at Edmonton (City), 5.6 km west: ECCC’s normals for 1991–2020.
A year in Highlands at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Highlands’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in Alberta beside it.
What a year in Highlands feels like
Typical highs and lows by season and by month, from ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals.
Frost on 179 days, 20°C on 90
Frost comes from September to May; in January almost every night freezes. Deep cold, under −20°C, comes on about 24 nights a year.
Frost days by month
Average days at 0°C or below
Days above 20°C by month
Average days
About 423 mm of rain and snow a year
July brings the most rain and snow; February, the least. Some 72 days a year see 1 mm of rain or snow or more.
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
Rain alone by month
Millimetres
About 124 cm of snow a year
Snow falls from October to May, most of all in January (about 26 cm).
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Snow on the ground by month
Centimetres at month’s end
Heating a home in Highlands
89% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: October to April.
Behind the figure: the degrees each day’s mean falls under 18°C, summed for the year. A house here needs more heating than 76% of Canadian towns.
Living with Highlands’s climate
Gardening, time outside, winter cold and summer heat, from the 1991–2020 normals.
From about 7 May to 25 September the garden is usually clear of frost, some 141 days.
The comfortable months for a day outside, highs of 17–27°C and nights of 8°C or more: Jun, Jul and Aug.
Parks & trails →Plan for about 50 days a year with a wind chill below −20.
A humidex above 30 marks about 11 days in a normal year.
A typical year is calm by definition; Highlands’s hazards page covers the exceptions.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Edmonton (City)
ECCC builds the Edmonton (City) normals from 3 stations’ records over 1991–2020, joined where one replaced another.
| Distance from the town | 5.6 km west |
| Station altitude | 671 m |
| Completeness | meets the WMO “3 and 5” rule |
| WMO standard normals | No |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −37.8°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 34.9°C |
| Average wind | 12.2 km/h on average, most often from the west |
| Next-nearest location | Fort Saskatchewan, 24 km |
How Highlands compares
Placed among 2,611 Canadian towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+, each on its nearest normals location; each dot is another location used in Alberta.
Nearby towns’ climate
Nearby places read from a different ECCC location (places on Highlands’s own would show the same figures). Distances here run 18–29 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from Highlands.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain & snow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands Edmonton (City) | 23.5°C | −14.7°C | 423 mm |
| Fort Saskatchewan 18 km · Fort Saskatchewan | 23.6°C about the same | −17.8°C 3.1°C colder | 473 mm |
| Beaumont 24 km · Edmonton (Airport) | 23.0°C 0.5°C cooler | −18.1°C 3.4°C colder | 434 mm |
Highlands weather by month
Average daily high and low, mean temperature, rain and snow (as water) and snowfall by month, 1991–2020.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain & snow | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −5.8°C | −14.7°C | −10.3°C | 20 mm | 26 cm |
| February | −3.0°C | −12.7°C | −7.9°C | 12 mm | 13 cm |
| March | 1.7°C | −7.8°C | −3.1°C | 17 mm | 19 cm |
| April | 10.4°C | −0.7°C | 4.9°C | 29 mm | 15 cm |
| May | 17.5°C | 5.6°C | 11.6°C | 44 mm | 5 cm |
| June | 21.0°C | 10.2°C | 15.6°C | 70 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 23.5°C | 12.6°C | 18.1°C | 83 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 22.6°C | 11.3°C | 17.0°C | 61 mm | under 1 cm |
| September | 17.6°C | 6.2°C | 11.9°C | 39 mm | 1 cm |
| October | 10.0°C | −0.1°C | 5.0°C | 21 mm | 11 cm |
| November | 0.6°C | −7.5°C | −3.5°C | 18 mm | 20 cm |
| December | −4.7°C | −13.2°C | −9.0°C | 12 mm | 15 cm |
| Year | 9.3°C | −0.9°C | 4.2°C | 423 mm | 124 cm |
From year to year, February moves by 4.2°C, more than any month, and June least
Over 1991–2020, March saw both −34.0°C (2003) and 23.9°C (2004), the widest span of any month.
Where Highlands’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 1991–2020 normals, Edmonton (City): the nearest of its locations with every month’s temperatures.
- Comparisons: every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 or more, each read from its own nearest location; city totals and reserves are left out.
- Not on this page: sunshine, absent from every 1991–2020 location, and an altitude correction, for want of the town’s own elevation.
Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020 · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence. Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Questions about Highlands’s climate
How warm does Highlands get in summer?
Highs reach 23.5°C on an average July day; no month is warmer.
How cold does Highlands get in winter?
Expect nights around −14.7°C in January; no month is colder.
How much rain and snow does Highlands get?
The year adds up to 423 mm. July is the peak month (83 mm) and February the low one (12 mm).
Are these figures for Highlands itself?
Almost: ECCC’s Edmonton (City) location, which gives these figures, lies a short way outside Highlands.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Highlands →
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).