Photo: Azure /Mark Seymour · CC BY-SA 3.0Amherst is wetter than 86% of Canadian towns: 1,161 mm of rain and snow a year
January mornings start at about −11.7°C. By July afternoons alone, it runs cooler than 68% of Canadian towns. Some 36°C separates winter nights from summer afternoons. Frost comes on about 162 days a year, so leave time to clear the car.
Amherst has no ECCC normals station of its own: every figure here comes from Nappan, 7.6 km south-west.
A year in Amherst at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Amherst’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in Nova Scotia beside it.
What a year in Amherst feels like
Seasons and months as ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals give them: a typical day’s high and low.
About 162 frosts and 97 warm days a year
Frost comes from October to May; in January almost every night freezes. On about 9 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 1,161 mm of rain and snow a year
October brings the most rain and snow; February, the least. Some 132 days a year see 1 mm of rain or snow or more.
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
310 cm of snow in a typical year
From October to May snow is likely; January is the peak, at about 74 cm. The snowiest of 90 towns of 2,500+ in Nova Scotia.
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Nappan publishes no full year of snowfall, so these figures come from Moncton, 48 km away.
Heating a home in Amherst
89% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April. Months averaging under 10°C: October to April.
The total grows by a degree for every degree a day’s mean sits under 18°C.
Living with Amherst’s climate
What the normals mean for a garden, a day outside and the depth of winter.
From about 27 May to 3 October the garden is usually clear of frost, some 128 days.
Afternoons of 17–27°C and nights of at least 8°C arrive in Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep.
Parks & trails →A wind chill below −20 is part of about 30 days a year here.
On some 32 days a year the humidex climbs past 30.
Severe weather is a separate story from the averages: see Amherst’s hazards page.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Nappan
ECCC builds the Nappan normals from 2 stations’ records over 1991–2020, joined where one replaced another.
| Distance from the town | 7.6 km south-west |
| Station altitude | 20 m |
| Completeness | meets the WMO “3 and 5” rule |
| WMO standard normals | No |
| Snowfall from | Moncton, 48 km |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −36.0°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 32.7°C |
| Average wind | 15.1 km/h on average, most often from the south |
| Next-nearest location | Moncton, 48 km |
How Amherst compares
Against the 2,611 Canadian towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more, each read from its own normals location; the dots are the other locations those towns use in Nova Scotia.
Nearby towns’ climate
The nearest places on a normals location of their own: those that share Amherst’s would only repeat its figures. Amherst has few close neighbours with figures, so the list reaches 33–44 km out.
| Town | July high | January low | Rain & snow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amherst Nappan | 24.3°C | −11.7°C | 1,161 mm |
| Memramcook 33 km · Moncton | 25.1°C 0.8°C warmer | −13.3°C 1.6°C colder | 1,203 mm |
| Botsford 38 km · Summerside | 24.1°C about the same | −11.3°C about the same | 1,161 mm |
| Cumberland County, Subdivision D 44 km · Tatamagouche | 25.4°C 1.1°C warmer | −11.9°C about the same | 1,134 mm |
Amherst weather by month
Each month’s normals, 1991–2020: high, low, mean, precipitation and snowfall.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain & snow | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −2.0°C | −11.7°C | −6.9°C | 102 mm | 74 cm |
| February | −1.4°C | −11.2°C | −6.3°C | 80 mm | 65 cm |
| March | 2.6°C | −6.7°C | −2.0°C | 91 mm | 60 cm |
| April | 9.1°C | −0.8°C | 4.1°C | 93 mm | 29 cm |
| May | 15.8°C | 4.4°C | 10.1°C | 84 mm | 2 cm |
| June | 20.7°C | 9.4°C | 15.1°C | 96 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 24.3°C | 13.3°C | 18.8°C | 81 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 24.1°C | 12.9°C | 18.5°C | 83 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 20.0°C | 9.1°C | 14.6°C | 109 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 13.7°C | 3.9°C | 8.9°C | 115 mm | 2 cm |
| November | 7.4°C | −0.8°C | 3.3°C | 114 mm | 19 cm |
| December | 1.6°C | −6.6°C | −2.5°C | 114 mm | 59 cm |
| Year | 11.3°C | 1.3°C | 6.3°C | 1,161 mm | 310 cm |
January strays furthest from its normal year to year, by 2.3°C; August the least
February has the widest record range, −36.0°C in 1993 to 16.2°C in 2016; the tick on each bar is the month’s normal.
Where Amherst’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: ECCC’s normals for Nappan, 1991–2020, chosen as the nearest location with a full temperature record.
- Other locations: ECCC blanks a month that fails its completeness rule, so the precipitation or snowfall here comes from the next location with all twelve months.
- Comparisons: all Canadian places of 2,500 or more except city totals and reserves, each read the same way.
- Not on this page: sunshine, which none of ECCC’s 450 locations publishes for 1991–2020, and the town’s own height above sea level, so no figure is adjusted for altitude.
Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020 · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence. Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Questions about Amherst’s climate
How warm does Amherst get in summer?
Summer peaks in July: a typical afternoon reaches 24.3°C.
How cold does Amherst get in winter?
Midwinter means January, when a typical night reaches −11.7°C.
How much rain and snow does Amherst get?
A normal year brings 1,161 mm, snow included as water: October is wettest at 115 mm, February driest at 80 mm.
Are these figures for Amherst itself?
They come from Nappan, which ECCC uses as the nearest normals location for Amherst.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Amherst →
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).