Contained within the 3rd Edition (1957) of the Atlas of Canada is a plate that shows two maps for the annual total precipitation. Annual precipitation is defined as the sum of rainfall and the assumed water equivalent of snowfall for a given year. A specific gravity of 0.1 for freshly fallen snow is used, which means that ten inches (25.4 cm) of freshly fallen snow is assumed to be equal to one inch (2.54 cm) of rain. The mean annual total precipitation and snowfall maps on this plate are primarily based on thirty-year data during the period 1921 to 1950 inclusive.

This statistic shows the average total precipitation for Canada from 1971 to 2000, by city. Victoria, Canada averaged 883.3 millimeters of precipitation annually from 1971 to 2000.

The AdjDlyRS dataset contains adjusted daily rainfall (R) and snowfall (S) data from all Canadian stations reporting rainfall and snowfall for which we have metadata to do the adjustments (Wang et al. 2017). The processing includes inspection and adjustments using quality control procedures customized for producing gridded datasets (Wang et al. 2017), including: (1) conversion of snowfall ruler measurements to their water equivalents; (2) corrections for gauge undercatch and evaporation due to wind effect, for gauge specific wetting loss, and for trace precipitation amount; and (3) treatment of flags (e.g. accumulation flags). Version 2020 or later versions of this dataset also includes identification and correction of random erroneous values, including false zeros, which usually arose from missing values being misrecorded as 0 precipitation in the climate Archive (Cheng et al. 2022). All the identified erroneous daily values are set to missing. A total of 3346 stations were processed, but the data series are not homogenized. Most of the stations are located in southern Canada and have short and/or seasonal data records. The number of stations changes over time: there are 512-958 stations in the period 1948-1964, 1012-2038 stations in the period 1965-2008, and only around 300 stations in the recent years. Note that the unadjusted/raw total precipitation data in Environment and Climate Change Canada's digital Archive underestimate more than 25% of the total precipitation in northern Canada, and about 10-15% in most of southern Canada (Wang et al. 2017). References: (1) Wang, X. L., Xu, B. Qian, Y. Feng, E. Mekis, 2017: Adjusted daily rainfall and snowfall data for Canada, Atmosphere-Ocean, 55:3, 155-168, DOI:10.1080/07055900.2017.1342163. (2) Cheng, V. Y.S., X. L. Wang, Y. Feng, 2022: A quality control system for historical in situ precipitation data. Atmosphere-Ocean (submitted)

The map shows the annual mean total precipitation. Over much of the continental interior of Canada, precipitation reaches its annual maximum in the summer months and falls as rain. October marks the transition from mainly rain to snowfall across northern Canada.

Precipitation in Canada increased to 530.44 mm in 2024 from 523.04 mm in 2023. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Canada Average Precipitation.

Contained within the 3rd Edition (1957) of the Atlas of Canada is a plate that shows two maps for the annual total precipitation. Annual precipitation is defined as the sum of rainfall and the assumed water equivalent of snowfall for a given year. A specific gravity of 0.1 for freshly fallen snow is used, which means that ten inches (25.4 cm) of freshly fallen snow is assumed to be equal to one inch (2.54 cm) of rain. The mean annual total precipitation and snowfall maps on this plate are primarily based on thirty-year data during the period 1921 to 1950 inclusive.

The map shows the mean total precipitation in the month of July. Throughout much of the continental interior of Canada, precipitation reaches its annual maximum in the summer months and falls as rain. On the Prairies, the maximum monthly precipitation is usually in June or July, but this shifts to August at more northerly latitudes and in Ontario and Quebec. On both the west and east coasts, summer is the driest time of the year, particularly on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast of southwestern British Columbia. In the Arctic Archipelago, rainfall tends to be dominant, but snowfall is still significant and can occur in any summer month.

The map shows the mean total precipitation in the month of April. April is a transitional month across much of southern Canada, when snow is still possible but rainfall begins to dominate the precipitation regime. Precipitation amounts across the southern interior of Canada are somewhat greater than those in January, as air temperatures warm in response to the increasing strength and duration of sunshine. Rainfall amounts onshore along British Columbia’s west coast are still in the range of 200 to 300 millimetres, somewhat less than the values in January. Likewise, in the Atlantic Provinces, precipitation amounts are less than in January, but the distribution of monthly precipitation is not as variable annually as on the Prairies or the west coast. Across northern Canada, it is still very much winter, with almost all precipitation falling as snow.

The map shows the mean total precipitation in the month of October. October marks the transition from mainly rain to snowfall across northern Canada. Snowfall also occurs across much of the interior of southern Canada but in relatively small amounts that usually melt. October also marks the transition to the rainy season on the southern portion of British Columbia’s west coast.

The map shows the mean total precipitation in the month of January. January precipitation across Canada is mainly in the form of snow. Throughout much of the interior and the north, precipitation amounts are generally less than 20 mm and, in the high Arctic, as little as a few millimetres. The west coast receives heavy precipitation in the form of rain at low elevations and mainly snow at higher elevations. For coastal British Columbia, this is the rainy season. On Canada’s east coast, where cold continental air masses clash with the warmer air masses from the Atlantic, there is a mixture of rain and snow, with rain dominating close to the Atlantic and snow becoming more prevalent to the northwest, in southern Quebec and Labrador. The snow belt east of Lake Superior and Lake Huron is clearly visible, especially around Georgian Bay.

This feature service includes data on common variables of climate for Canada. Layers in this map service include daylight hours in December and June (solstice months), annual min, max, and mean temperatures, total rainfall and total snowfall. Data for all layers represent mean values from 1951 to 1980.Map Service published and hosted by Esri Canada, © 2020.Content Source(s):'Land Potential DataBase', Version 1.0, National Soil DataBase, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1997.'Climate5180', Version 1.0, National Soil DataBase, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1997.Coordinate System: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100)

Probability of total precipitation above 100mm over the forecast period (pweek100_prob) Week 1 and week 2 forecasted probability is available daily from September 1 to August 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted probability is available weekly (Thursday) from September 1 to August 31. Precipitation (moisture availability) establishes the economic yield potential and product quality of field crops. Both dry and wet precipitation extremes have the ability to inhibit proper crop growth. The greatest daily precipitation index covers the risk of excessive precipitation in the short term, while the other indices pertain to longer term moisture availability. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

Annual summer, early winter, and total winter seasonal precipitation metrics, in millimeters, for Alaska and Northwest Canada. Seasonal metrics were calculated from monthly data with season lengths calculated from the piecewise cubic hermite interpolating polynomial calculated from monthly temperature data used to calculate our degree-day dataset. Input monthly data from the Scenarios Network for Alaska + Arctic Planing, consisting of downscaled CRU TS 4.0 historic estimates of monthly temperature were used for the period from 1901-2020, and downscaled CMIP5/AR5 projected estimates of monthly temperature were used from the period from 2006-2100. Summer precipitation and early winter precipitation were calculated from 1901-2100, and full winter precipitation from 1901-2099.

Probability of total precipitation above 50mm over the forecast period (pweek50_prob). Week 1 and week 2 forecasted probability is available daily from September 1 to August 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted probability is available weekly (Thursday) from September 1 to August 31. Precipitation (moisture availability) establishes the economic yield potential and product quality of field crops. Both dry and wet precipitation extremes have the ability to inhibit proper crop growth. The greatest daily precipitation index covers the risk of excessive precipitation in the short term, while the other indices pertain to longer term moisture availability. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

Statistically downscaled multi-model ensembles of projected change (also known as anomalies) in total precipitation are available at a 10km spatial resolution for 1951-2100. Statistically downscaled ensembles are based on output from twenty-four Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) global climate models (GCM). Daily precipitation (mm/day) from GCM outputs were downscaled using the Bias Correction/Constructed Analogues with Quantile mapping version 2 (BCCAQv2). A historical gridded precipitation dataset of Canada (ANUSPLIN) was used as the downscaling target. Projected relative change in total precipitation is with respect to the reference period of 1986-2005 and expressed as a percentage (%). Seasonal and annual averages of projected precipitation change to 1986-2005 are provided. Specifically, the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th percentiles of the downscaled ensembles of projected precipitation change are available for the historical time period, 1901-2005, and for emission scenarios, RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, for 2006-2100. Twenty-year average changes in statistically downscaled total precipitation (%) for four time periods (2021-2040; 2041-2060; 2061-2080; 2081-2100), with respect to the reference period of 1986-2005, for RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 are also available in a range of formats. The median projected change across the ensemble of downscaled CMIP5 climate models is provided. Note: Projections among climate models can vary because of differences in their underlying representation of earth system processes. Thus, the use of a multi-model ensemble approach has been demonstrated in recent scientific literature to likely provide better projected climate change information.

This dataset contains the daily summaries on base stations across Canada. The four indicators included are:

* TPCP: Total precipitation
* MXSD: Maximum snow depth
* TSNW: Total snow fall
* EMXP: Extreme maximum daily precipitation

Indicators are compiled by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which is administrated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) an organization part of the United States government. NOAA has access to data collected from thousands of base stations around the world, which collect data periodically on weather and climate conditions.

This dataset contains the latest 5 years of available data.

Seasonal and annual trends of relative total precipitation change (%) for 1948-2012 based on Canadian gridded data (CANGRD) are available, at a 50km resolution across Canada. The relative trends reflect the percent change in total precipitation over a period from the baseline value (defined as the average over 1961-1990 as the reference period). CANGRD data are interpolated from adjusted and homogenized climate station data (i.e., AHCCD datasets). Adjusted precipitation data incorporate adjustments to the original station data to account for discontinuities from non-climatic factors, such as instrument changes or station relocation.

Contained within the 3rd Edition (1957) of the Atlas of Canada is a plate that shows four maps of the mean precipitation for spring (March to May), summer (June to August), fall (September to November) and winter (December to February). The total precipitation for any season is the sum of the rainfall and one-tenth of the snowfall for that particular three-month period. The mean seasonal precipitation is the mean of the seasonal totals during the period 1921 to 1950 inclusive.

The Adjusted Precipitation data consist of monthly, seasonal and annual totals of daily adjusted rain, snow and total precipitation (millimetres) for 464 locations in Canada. Adjusted precipitation data incorporate adjustments (derived from comparison of instruments) to the original station data to account for discontinuities from non-climatic factors, such as instrument changes or station relocation. The time periods of the data vary by location, with the oldest data available from the early 1880s at some stations to the most recent update in 2017. Observations at co-located sites were sometimes joined in order to create longer time series. Data availability over most of the Canadian Arctic is restricted to the mid-1940s to present.

The data consist of homogenized daily maximum, minimum and mean surface air temperatures for more than 330 locations in Canada; adjusted daily rainfall, snowfall and total precipitation for more than 460 locations. The data are given for the entire period of observation. Please refer to the papers below for detailed information regarding the procedures for homogenization and adjustment. References: Mekis, É. and L.A. Vincent, 2011: An overview of the second generation adjusted daily precipitation dataset for trend analysis in Canada. Atmosphere-Ocean, 49(2), 163-177. Vincent, L. A., X. L. Wang, E. J. Milewska, H. Wan, F. Yang, and V. Swail, 2012. A second generation of homogenized Canadian monthly surface air temperature for climate trend analysis, J. Geophys. Res., 117, D18110, doi:10.1029/2012JD017859. Wang, X.L, Y. Feng, L. A. Vincent, 2013. Observed changes in one-in-20 year extremes of Canadian surface air temperatures. Atmosphere-Ocean. Doi:10.1080/07055900.2013.818526.