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Has the climate in Medicine Hat changed?

How Medicine Hat's climate has changed

About 0.1°F per decade, measured from Medicine Hat's official daily weather records, 2001–2020. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Medicine Hat's climate has warmed more slowly than most other cities in Canada.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
7 fewer nights
1970s
183 / yr
→
Recent
176 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
about the same
1970s
43.2°F
→
Recent
43.4°F
Year-round temperature has barely moved
Hot days above 90°F
1 fewer day
1970s
18 / yr
→
Recent
17 / yr
Slightly fewer hot days
Rainy days
41 more days
1970s
80 / yr
→
Recent
121 / yr
Wetter on average

Medicine Hat's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 2001 to 2020.

39°41°43°45°47°2001: 44.3°F2002: 40.6°F2003: 42.7°F2004: 42.5°F2005: 43.3°F2006: 45.7°F2007: 44.3°F2008: 41.7°F2009: 40.8°F2010: 41.4°F2011: 42.2°F2012: 44.0°F2013: 43.0°F2014: 42.2°F2015: 45.0°F2016: 45.3°F2017: 43.9°F2018: 41.8°F2019: 40.7°F2020: 43.4°Flong-term trend200120102020
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 97 more freezing nights a year and about 10 more days above 90°F compared with the 1970s.

When in the year the change shows up

How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s. Useful if you garden or care about a particular season — otherwise the headline above already has the answer.

-1.5°-1.0°-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°+1.5°+2.0°+2.5°+3.0°+3.5°+4.0°+4.5°+5.0°+5.5°+6.0°+6.5°+7.0°+7.5°+8.0°+8.5°+9.0°+9.5°January: +6.6°F+6.6JFebruary: -0.4°F-0.4FMarch: +2.6°F+2.6MApril: +3.4°F+3.4AMay: +2.5°F+2.5MJune: +2.1°F+2.1JJuly: +4.5°F+4.5JAugust: -0.7°F-0.7ASeptember: +0.6°F+0.6SOctober: -1.4°F-1.4ONovember: +6.0°F+6.0NDecember: +9.1°F+9.1D

December has warmed the most — about 9.1°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 20 years of daily observations at Medicine Hat Rcs, a weather station, about 3 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →