Photo: Shawn from Airdrie, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Smithers has some of the coolest summers among Canadian towns
In January the night’s low is typically −10.9°C. It is a dry place: less rain and snow fall here than on 75% of Canadian towns. The wettest month is October; the driest is March. Plan for rain or snow on about 105 days a year, the days with 1 mm or more.
Figures: ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals at Smithers (4.8 km north).
A year in Smithers at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Smithers’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in British Columbia beside it.
What a year in Smithers feels like
Each season’s and each month’s usual high and low, 1991–2020.
About 187 frosts and 62 warm days a year
The frost season runs September to May, and December freezes nearly every night. Deep cold, under −20°C, comes on about 12 nights a year.
Frost days by month
Average days at 0°C or below
Days above 20°C by month
Average days
506 mm of precipitation in a typical year
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
Rain alone by month
Millimetres
About 184 cm of snow a year
From October to April snow is likely; December is the peak, at about 48 cm.
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Snow on the ground by month
Centimetres at month’s end
Heating a home in Smithers
83% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: October to April.
Measured against 18°C: each day’s shortfall in mean temperature, added over twelve months. A house here needs more heating than 65% of Canadian towns.
Living with Smithers’s climate
The averages read for the garden, the outdoors and the coldest and hottest days.
Gardens get from about 26 May to 17 September without frost, around 113 days in all.
Afternoons of 17–27°C and nights of at least 8°C arrive in Jul and Aug.
Parks & trails →On some 18 days a year the wind chill drops past −20; mitts and a scarf earn their place.
Summer brings about 5 days when the humidex passes 30.
A normal year has no blizzard, flood or heat wave in it; Smithers’s hazards page looks at those.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Smithers
Smithers is a composite: ECCC joins 3 stations’ readings to make its 1991–2020 normals.
| Distance from the town | 4.8 km north |
| Station altitude | 523 m |
| Completeness | meets the WMO “3 and 5” rule |
| WMO standard normals | Yes |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −39.0°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 36.0°C |
| Average wind | 5.4 km/h on average, most often from the south-east |
| Next-nearest location | Burns Lake Decker Lake, 90 km |
How Smithers 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
The nearest places on a normals location of their own: those that share Smithers’s would only repeat its figures. Smithers has few close neighbours with figures, so the list reaches 55–110 km out.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain & snow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smithers | 21.8°C | −10.9°C | 506 mm |
| Houston 55 km · Burns Lake Decker Lake | 22.1°C about the same | −14.8°C 3.9°C colder | 506 mm |
| Electoral Area E, Kitimat-Stikine 93 km · Terrace | 21.5°C about the same | −5.3°C 5.6°C milder | 1,338 mm |
Smithers 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 | −3.4°C | −10.9°C | −7.2°C | 42 mm | 41 cm |
| February | 0.0°C | −9.2°C | −4.6°C | 24 mm | 25 cm |
| March | 4.9°C | −5.5°C | −0.3°C | 20 mm | 17 cm |
| April | 11.0°C | −1.2°C | 4.9°C | 27 mm | 5 cm |
| May | 16.6°C | 3.3°C | 10.0°C | 39 mm | 1 cm |
| June | 19.5°C | 6.9°C | 13.2°C | 51 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 21.8°C | 9.0°C | 15.4°C | 44 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 21.5°C | 8.1°C | 14.8°C | 45 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 16.2°C | 4.4°C | 10.4°C | 49 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 8.7°C | 0.1°C | 4.4°C | 66 mm | 9 cm |
| November | 1.2°C | −4.7°C | −1.8°C | 54 mm | 38 cm |
| December | −3.1°C | −9.9°C | −6.5°C | 44 mm | 48 cm |
| Year | 9.6°C | −0.8°C | 4.4°C | 506 mm | 184 cm |
From −39.0°C to 13.6°C: December’s coldest and warmest days since 1991
From one year to the next, February’s average typically shifts by 3.5°C around its normal of −4.6°C, the widest of any month, while October’s shifts by 1.0°C.
Where Smithers’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: the Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020, at Smithers (the closest location with all twelve months of temperatures).
- Comparisons: all Canadian places of 2,500 or more except city totals and reserves, each read the same way.
- 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 Smithers’s climate
How warm does Smithers get in summer?
Expect highs near 21.8°C in July, the hottest month on average.
How cold does Smithers get in winter?
Midwinter means January, when a typical night reaches −10.9°C.
How much rain and snow does Smithers get?
Rain and snow add up to about 506 mm of water a year; October brings the most (66 mm), March the least (20 mm).
How long does snow stay on the ground?
Around 127 days a year see 1 cm of snow or more lying.
Are these figures for Smithers itself?
They are: the normals station that gives them stands in Smithers.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Smithers →
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).