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Has the climate in Medicine Hat changed?

Medicine Hat has warmed about 1.4°F between 2001 and 2024.

About 0.6°F per decade, measured from Medicine Hat's official daily weather records, 2001–2024. 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 warming is broadly in line with other cities in Canada — neither unusually fast nor unusually slow.

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
15 fewer nights
1970s
184 / yr
Recent
169 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+0.3°F
1970s
43.1°F
Recent
43.5°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
4 more days
1970s
18 / yr
Recent
22 / yr
More days of serious heat
Rainy days
18 more days
1970s
84 / yr
Recent
102 / yr
Wetter on average

Medicine Hat's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 2001 to 2024.

39°41°43°45°47°49°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°F2021: 44.5°F2022: 42.8°F2023: 47.1°F2024: 43.5°Flong-term trend2001201020202024
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 →