For weather, Pincher Creek is about as ordinary as Canadian towns get
July afternoons reach 24.2°C on a typical day and January nights drop to −10.4°C; 550 mm of rain and melted snow falls in a year. The seasons are far apart: from a winter night to a summer afternoon the average spans 35°C. Summers stay cool: July afternoons here are cooler than in 69% of Canadian towns. An umbrella or a shovel earns its place on about 82 days a year with 1 mm or more.
Figures: ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals for Pincher Creek (5.5 km north-west).
A year in Pincher Creek at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Pincher Creek’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in Alberta beside it.
What a year in Pincher Creek feels like
Seasons and months as ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals give them: a typical day’s high and low.
About 172 frosts and 88 warm days a year
From September to May frost is routine, and in December it comes on almost every night. Deep cold, under −20°C, comes on about 19 nights a year.
Frost days by month
Average days at 0°C or below
Days above 20°C by month
Average days
Rain and melted snow: about 550 mm a year
June is the wettest month and January the driest. The wettest of 478 towns of 2,500+ in Alberta.
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
Snowfall: about 111 cm in a normal year
From September to May snow is likely; March is the peak, at about 22 cm.
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Pincher Creek publishes no full year of snowfall, so these figures come from Claresholm, 62 km away.
Heating a home in Pincher Creek
84% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: October to May.
A day averaging 10 degrees under 18°C adds 10 to the total; warm days add nothing.
Living with Pincher Creek’s climate
Gardening, time outside, winter cold and summer heat, from the 1991–2020 normals.
Wait until about 24 May to plant out; frost tends to come back around 12 September, about 110 days later.
Highs of 17–27°C with nights of 8°C or more come in Jul and Aug.
Parks & trails →The wind chill passes −20 on about 42 days in a normal year.
Roughly 10 days a year feel hotter than 30 once humidity is counted.
Thirty-year normals hide the storms and the extremes: the hazards page has Pincher Creek’s risks.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Pincher Creek
ECCC builds the Pincher Creek normals from 4 stations’ records over 1991–2020, joined where one replaced another.
| Distance from the town | 5.5 km north-west |
| Station altitude | 1,190 m |
| Completeness | meets the WMO “3 and 5” rule |
| WMO standard normals | No |
| Snowfall from | Claresholm, 62 km |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −38.8°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 37.5°C |
| Average wind | 21.6 km/h on average, most often from the west |
| Next-nearest location | Claresholm, 62 km |
How Pincher Creek 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 Pincher Creek’s own would show the same figures). Distances here run 48–64 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from Pincher Creek.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain & snow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pincher Creek | 24.2°C | −10.4°C | 550 mm |
| Fort Macleod 48 km · Claresholm | 25.2°C 1.0°C warmer | −13.2°C 2.8°C colder | 428 mm |
| Blood 148 50 km · Carway | 24.0°C about the same | −10.9°C 0.5°C colder | 534 mm |
Pincher Creek weather by month
Month by month, 1991–2020: the usual high, low and mean, the rain and snow, and the snowfall.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain & snow | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −0.4°C | −10.4°C | −5.4°C | 14 mm | 15 cm |
| February | 0.6°C | −10.0°C | −4.7°C | 22 mm | 17 cm |
| March | 4.5°C | −6.7°C | −1.1°C | 30 mm | 22 cm |
| April | 10.1°C | −2.0°C | 4.1°C | 43 mm | 12 cm |
| May | 15.7°C | 2.8°C | 9.2°C | 72 mm | 6 cm |
| June | 19.3°C | 6.8°C | 13.0°C | 116 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 24.2°C | 9.1°C | 16.6°C | 50 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 24.3°C | 8.3°C | 16.4°C | 47 mm | under 1 cm |
| September | 18.6°C | 4.7°C | 11.7°C | 65 mm | 1 cm |
| October | 11.1°C | −0.3°C | 5.4°C | 37 mm | 7 cm |
| November | 3.8°C | −5.4°C | −0.8°C | 25 mm | 16 cm |
| December | −0.5°C | −9.7°C | −5.1°C | 28 mm | 15 cm |
| Year | 10.9°C | −1.1°C | 4.9°C | 550 mm | 111 cm |
February strays furthest from its normal year to year, by 4.6°C; June the least
Over 1991–2020, March saw both −36.5°C (2002) and 22.6°C (2004), the widest span of any month.
Where Pincher Creek’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: ECCC’s normals for Pincher Creek, 1991–2020, chosen as the nearest location with a full temperature record.
- Other locations: precipitation and snowfall come from the nearest location that publishes all twelve months of them, as named above.
- Comparisons: Canadian towns and neighbourhoods of at least 2,500, each placed by its nearest location (city totals and reserves excluded).
- 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 Pincher Creek’s climate
How warm does Pincher Creek get in summer?
Highs reach 24.3°C on an average August day; no month is warmer.
How cold does Pincher Creek get in winter?
January nights average −10.4°C, the coldest of the year.
How much rain and snow does Pincher Creek get?
Over twelve months, rain and melted snow come to 550 mm; the range runs from 14 mm in January to 116 mm in June.
Are these figures for Pincher Creek itself?
Nearly: Pincher Creek, the location behind them, sits just beyond Pincher Creek’s boundary.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Pincher Creek →
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).