Photo: Sebastian Kasten · CC BY-SA 3.0Hardly any Canadian towns see fresher July days than Iqaluit
Nights in January average −29.9°C. Frost is common: about 261 nights a year drop below freezing, more than in almost every Canadian town. Precipitation follows the seasons: August brings about 4.4 times as much as February. Wet days, with 1 mm of rain or snow or more, come about 81 times a year.
Measured at Iqaluit, 2.3 km west: ECCC’s normals for 1991–2020.
A year in Iqaluit at a glance
Each month’s typical high and low, in °C.
What stands out about Iqaluit’s climate
Compared with Canadian towns, with its place among towns of 2,500+ in Nunavut beside it.
What a year in Iqaluit feels like
Seasons and months as ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals give them: a typical day’s high and low.
261 frost days and 3 days above 20°C a year
From September to June frost is routine, and in January it comes on almost every night. Some 122 nights a year drop under −20°C.
Frost days by month
Average days at 0°C or below
Days above 20°C by month
Average days
Rain and melted snow: about 361 mm a year
The wettest of 3 towns of 2,500+ in Nunavut.
Rain and snow by month
Millimetres
Rain alone by month
Millimetres
About 190 cm of snow a year
Expect snow from September to June, with about 29 cm in December, the snowiest month. The snowiest of 3 towns of 2,500+ in Nunavut.
Snowfall by month
Centimetres
Snow on the ground by month
Centimetres at month’s end
Heating a home in Iqaluit
78% of a year’s heating need falls between October and April.
ECCC sums, over the year, how many degrees each day’s average falls short of 18°C. Homes here need more heating than almost every Canadian town.
Living with Iqaluit’s climate
What the normals mean for a garden, a day outside and the depth of winter.
Between the last frost, near 18 June, and the first, near 5 September, lie about 78 frost-free days.
Even midsummer nights fall below 8°C on average, so no month meets the mild-day rule of 17–27°C by day.
Parks & trails →About 160 days a year bring a wind chill under −20, when bare skin chills fast.
What averages leave out, the floods and ice storms, is on Iqaluit’s hazards page.
Flood & hazards →ECCC’s normals location: Iqaluit
Iqaluit is a composite: ECCC joins 5 stations’ readings to make its 1991–2020 normals.
| Distance from the town | 2.3 km west |
| Station altitude | 34 m |
| Completeness | meets the WMO “3 and 5” rule |
| WMO standard normals | No |
| Coldest reading, 1991–2020 | −44.9°C |
| Hottest reading, 1991–2020 | 26.8°C |
| Average wind | 16.2 km/h on average, most often from the north-west |
| Next-nearest location | Brevoort Island, 220 km |
How Iqaluit 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 Nunavut.
Iqaluit weather by month
Each month’s normals, 1991–2020: high, low, mean, precipitation and snowfall.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Rain & snow | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −22.0°C | −29.9°C | −26.0°C | 16 mm | 19 cm |
| February | −22.9°C | −31.0°C | −27.0°C | 14 mm | 15 cm |
| March | −17.6°C | −27.2°C | −22.4°C | 21 mm | 21 cm |
| April | −8.9°C | −18.1°C | −13.5°C | 23 mm | 24 cm |
| May | −0.3°C | −6.1°C | −3.2°C | 21 mm | 23 cm |
| June | 7.0°C | 0.7°C | 3.9°C | 49 mm | 4 cm |
| July | 12.0°C | 4.2°C | 8.1°C | 40 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 11.1°C | 3.8°C | 7.5°C | 62 mm | under 1 cm |
| September | 5.6°C | 0.2°C | 2.9°C | 51 mm | 9 cm |
| October | −0.5°C | −5.8°C | −3.2°C | 30 mm | 21 cm |
| November | −7.5°C | −14.7°C | −11.1°C | 19 mm | 26 cm |
| December | −14.7°C | −23.0°C | −18.9°C | 16 mm | 29 cm |
| Year | −4.9°C | −12.2°C | −8.6°C | 361 mm | 190 cm |
The month with the widest range: February, −44.7°C to 5.7°C
Bars run from each month’s record low to its record high over 1991–2020; December is the month whose average wanders most from year to year (±4.4°C around −18.9°C), September the one that wanders least (±0.9°C).
Where Iqaluit’s numbers come from
Averages over 30 years, not a forecast.
- Normals: 1991–2020 normals for Iqaluit from ECCC’s climate data site, the nearest location with every month of temperature.
- Comparisons: all Canadian places of 2,500 or more except city totals and reserves, each read the same way.
- 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 Iqaluit’s climate
How warm does Iqaluit get in summer?
Afternoons average 12.0°C in July, the warmest time of year.
How cold does Iqaluit get in winter?
February nights average −31.0°C, the coldest of the year.
How much rain and snow does Iqaluit get?
361 mm a year counting snow as water. The wettest month is August (62 mm); the driest, February (14 mm).
How long does snow stay on the ground?
There is 1 cm of snow or more on the ground on roughly 231 days a year.
Are these figures for Iqaluit itself?
They are: the normals station that gives them stands in Iqaluit.
Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada · ECCC Data Services End-use Licence Today’s forecast for Iqaluit →
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).