Photo: James O'Brien · CC BY-SA 4.0Few Canadian towns have milder winter nights than Lake Cowichan
Expect July afternoons of about 22.7°C. Precipitation follows the seasons: January brings about 8.0 times as much as July. Summers stay cool: July afternoons here are cooler than in 94% of Canadian towns. Wet days, with 1 mm of rain or snow or more, come about 119 times a year.
Lake Cowichan has no ECCC normals station of its own: every figure here comes from Victoria (Airport), 49 km south-east.
A year in Lake Cowichan at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Lake Cowichan’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in British Columbia beside it.
What a year in Lake Cowichan feels like
Typical highs and lows by season and by month, from ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals.
Frost on 45 days, 20°C on 83
The frost season runs November to April, peaking in January at about 10 nights.
Frost days by month
Average days at 0°C or below
Days above 20°C by month
Average days
About 901 mm of rain and snow a year
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
Rain alone by month
Millimetres
Snowfall: about 39 cm in a normal year
Expect snow from November to March, with about 12 cm in December, the snowiest month.
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Snow on the ground by month
Centimetres at month’s end
Heating a home in Lake Cowichan
84% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: November to April.
A heating degree day is one degree of shortfall below 18°C for one day, summed over the year. By this count, homes here need less heating than 95% of Canadian towns.
Living with Lake Cowichan’s climate
Gardening, time outside, winter cold and summer heat, from the 1991–2020 normals.
Gardens get from about 4 April to 4 November without frost, around 213 days in all.
Mild days and mild nights together (17–27°C by day, 8°C or more at night) belong to Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep.
Parks & trails →Roughly 6 days a year feel hotter than 30 once humidity is counted.
Thirty years of averages say little about one bad storm; Lake Cowichan’s hazards page does.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Victoria (Airport)
ECCC builds the Victoria (Airport) normals from 2 stations’ records over 1991–2020, joined where one replaced another.
| Distance from the town | 49 km south-east |
| Station altitude | 20 m |
| Completeness | meets the WMO “3 and 5” rule |
| WMO standard normals | No |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −10.5°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 36.3°C |
| Average wind | 9.7 km/h on average, most often from the west |
| Next-nearest location | Saturna CAPMON, 67 km |
How Lake Cowichan compares
Compared with 2,611 towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more across Canada; the dots mark the other normals locations in British Columbia.
Nearby towns’ climate
Places around Lake Cowichan whose figures come from another normals location. The one place listed is 27 km from Lake Cowichan, the nearest with figures.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain & snow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Cowichan Victoria (Airport) | 22.7°C | 1.6°C | 901 mm |
| Electoral Area H, Cowichan Valley 27 km · Vancouver International (Airport) | 22.4°C about the same | 1.4°C about the same | 1,160 mm |
Lake Cowichan weather by month
Each month’s normals, 1991–2020: high, low, mean, precipitation and snowfall.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain & snow | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7.5°C | 1.6°C | 4.6°C | 155 mm | 11 cm |
| February | 8.7°C | 1.4°C | 5.0°C | 85 mm | 7 cm |
| March | 10.8°C | 2.7°C | 6.8°C | 80 mm | 4 cm |
| April | 13.7°C | 4.6°C | 9.1°C | 48 mm | 1 cm |
| May | 17.5°C | 7.6°C | 12.6°C | 37 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 20.2°C | 10.1°C | 15.2°C | 29 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 22.7°C | 11.7°C | 17.2°C | 20 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 22.6°C | 11.6°C | 17.1°C | 24 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 19.7°C | 9.2°C | 14.5°C | 36 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 14.3°C | 6.0°C | 10.2°C | 96 mm | under 1 cm |
| November | 9.9°C | 3.0°C | 6.5°C | 146 mm | 4 cm |
| December | 7.3°C | 1.5°C | 4.4°C | 146 mm | 12 cm |
| Year | 14.6°C | 5.9°C | 10.3°C | 901 mm | 39 cm |
February varies most from one year to the next (1.5°C), August least
Each bar spans a month’s coldest and warmest readings over thirty years; June’s run from 2.1°C in 1991 to 33.5°C in 2003.
Where Lake Cowichan’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: the 1991–2020 normals from ECCC for Victoria (Airport), its nearest location with complete temperatures.
- Comparisons: the towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ across Canada, each on its nearest normals location, without the city totals or the reserves.
- Not on this page: sunshine, not in ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals, and the effect of the town’s height, for which there is no figure.
Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020 · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence. Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Questions about Lake Cowichan’s climate
How warm does Lake Cowichan get in summer?
In July, the warmest month, the typical high is 22.7°C.
How cold does Lake Cowichan get in winter?
Overnight lows average 1.4°C in February, the coldest month.
How much rain and snow does Lake Cowichan get?
901 mm a year counting snow as water. The wettest month is January (155 mm); the driest, July (20 mm).
How long does snow stay on the ground?
In a normal winter there are about 8 days with at least 1 cm of snow lying.
Are these figures for Lake Cowichan itself?
They are the closest available: the normals for Victoria (Airport), since Lake Cowichan has none.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Lake Cowichan →
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).