May can bring Canada 30-degree heat and late-spring snows
May puts Canada firmly on the road to summer—but there are plenty of detours along the way
Are you ready for the slow climb toward summer? The teases of warmth that arrived throughout March and April finally start to linger in a typical May. This final month of meteorological spring can deliver Canadians the weather they spent months pining for.
But the weather still has some tricks up its sleeve. Lingering cold and stubborn bouts of snow can send us on detours off the road to summer.
Here’s what you can expect across Canada throughout an average May.
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Temperatures continue rapidly climbing through May
One bright spot for warm-weather lovers is that the concept of “normal” is much warmer in May than it is in March or even April. A spell of below-seasonal temperatures in May is typically more than manageable—even if it is a bit annoying.
Toronto’s average daytime high climbs from around 16°C at the beginning of the month to around 23°C by the end of May.
Winnipeg sees a jump in seasonal temperatures from 12°C to 22° through the month, while Kamloops’ normal daily high climbs about 6 degrees between May 1 and May 31.
Bursts of summer-like heat start to arrive
After so many months of donning coats and running the furnace, we can finally start talking about true summer-like heat during the month of May. Not only that, but legitimate heat waves can arrive—especially toward the latter half of the month.
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Bouts of temperatures 30°C are possible throughout the eastern half of the country in May. Montreal has recorded four May heat waves, most recently in 2020. Ottawa last saw a late-spring heat wave in 2016.
Toronto is known to have the occasional spell of truly July-esque heat to close out the waning days of meteorological spring.
Pearson Airport saw an impressive high temperature of 34.4°C on both May 16 and May 17 back in 1962, making for the month’s hottest-ever temperature since records began there back in 1938.
May can still bring Canada some ugly, snowy surprises
While many folks are eager to fast-forward to summer, the atmosphere occasionally likes to dish out a throwback to wintertime.
The eastern half of the country is no stranger to May snows. Toronto has recorded measurable snow in 10 per cent of all Mays. Northern Ontario has seen some hefty totals through the month. Kenora once saw 35.6 cm of snow in the middle of May.
Folks along the East Coast are accustomed to May snows. Halifax has seen snow in 40 per cent of Mays on record there. St. John’s witnesses measurable snow during most Mays, and sometimes even into June. The city’s latest snowfall occurred on June 13. A little ways inland, Goose Bay has had it worse—they’ve had snow as late as July 1.
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Springtime snows are common on the western Prairies as low-pressure systems interact with cold air from the north and ample moisture streaming in from the south.
Almost all of Calgary’s top-five snowiest days on record fell in May. The city’s snowiest day on record was May 6, 1981, when observers measured 48.4 cm of snow on the ground.