Montréal climate

What the climate of Montréal is like

The warmest month is July, with an average high of 25 °C78 °F and a low of 16 °C60 °F. The coldest is January, when highs average −7 °C19 °F and lows −18 °C0 °F. The climate is extremely continental — the average temperature swings by 33 °C59.3 °F between the coldest and the warmest month.

It is wet, with about 1,086 mm43 in of precipitation per year. Rain is spread fairly evenly through the year. The wettest month is October (114 mm4.5 in), the driest is February (68 mm2.7 in).

Relative humidity ranges from 74% in August to 92% in January. The clearest skies (lowest average cloud amount, 54%) are typical of September. Average wind speed near the ground ranges from 9 km/h (6 mph) in August to 13 km/h (8 mph) in February. Daylight lasts from about 8.7 hours in December to 15.7 hours in June.

A lasting snow cover is typical in November–March. In those months the average snow depth in the reanalysis exceeds 10 cm. It is deepest in February, at about 30 cm.

Best time to visit Montréal

Based on these averages, the most comfortable months for sightseeing and outdoor activities are June–September. Average highs then reach 21 °C70 °F to 25 °C78 °F. Precipitation is 88 mm3.5 in to 109 mm4.3 in per month.

The most challenging month is January, which is cold, with average highs of −7 °C19 °F.

Comfort score: months are ranked by how close they come to an ideal. That means an average high of 21–28 °C (70–82 °F), lows above 5 °C (41 °F), little precipitation and moderate humidity. The best-ranked months of each place are recommended, even where none meets all of these. These are general rules of thumb applied to long-term averages.

What to pack for Montréal

• Winter (December–February) — highs −719 to −4 °C26 °F, lows −180 to −12 °C10 °F, about 79 mm3.1 in of precipitation a month. Pack heavy insulated clothing, thermal base layers, a warm hat, mittens and insulated boots.
• Spring (March–May) — highs 033 to 17 °C63 °F, lows −915 to 7 °C44 °F, about 88 mm3.5 in of precipitation a month. Pack a warm coat, layers and closed shoes, an extra layer for the cooler mornings and evenings and shoes with good grip, as frost is common.
• Summer (June–August) — highs 2272 to 25 °C78 °F, lows 1355 to 16 °C60 °F, about 100 mm4.0 in of precipitation a month. Pack light summer clothes such as T-shirts, shorts or light dresses and an umbrella or light rain jacket.
• Autumn (September–November) — highs 439 to 21 °C70 °F, lows −426 to 10 °C50 °F, about 94 mm3.7 in of precipitation a month. Pack long sleeves, a sweater and a medium jacket and an umbrella or light rain jacket.

How Montréal compares

World Climates covers 40 places in Canada. By annual mean temperature, Montréal is the 29th warmest of them. By annual precipitation, it is the 12th wettest. See all of them on the Canada climate page.

Some places in other countries have a very similar pattern of temperature and rainfall. The closest matches are Ryazan (Russia, Dfb), Lyubertsy (Russia, Dfb) and Murom (Russia, Dfb).

The same NASA POWER grid cell also contains Laval (pop. 438,366), Longueuil (pop. 229,330), Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie (pop. 146,501), Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension (pop. 144,814), Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (pop. 142,753), Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne (pop. 119,944), Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles (pop. 113,868), Terrebonne (pop. 111,575), Le Plateau-Mont-Royal (pop. 105,813) and Ville-Marie (pop. 104,944). Their long-term averages in this dataset are essentially the same as for Montréal, so they do not have separate pages.