Ottawa month by month
According to the 1971-2000 normals from the Canadian weather service, some 914 mm of water and around 203 cm of snow fall here each year. No season resembles the next.
01 An uncommon range
The 1971-2000 normals give the measure of the contrast: in January the average high is −6.1 °C and the low −14.8 °C; in July, 26.4 and 15.5 °C. Between the year’s coldest and warmest points lies a range of more than forty degrees.
It is worth saying that those normals come from an older reference period and that recent winters have generally been less severe. They serve to understand the structure of the year, not to predict a particular January.
02 Winter has a plan
What sets this capital apart from other cold cities is that it turns cold into infrastructure. Since 1971, the urban stretch of the Rideau Canal has been frozen and prepared as a skating rink: 7.8 kilometers of ice through downtown, the largest skateable surface in the world.
Here one must be honest about dates. The season depends entirely on sustained cold and has become short and unpredictable: the winter of 2022-2023 recorded not a single skating day, the first such case on record. The 2025-2026 season opened on 31 December. If this is why you are coming, come in February and check the reports before buying the flight.
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03 May and October
At the other end of the year there are two short and very different windows. May brings highs of 19.1 °C, the thaw already forgotten and the city in flower; this is when the tulip festival fills the downtown parks and the canal banks with blooms.
October is the other. With highs of 12.6 °C and dry air, the forest on both banks and in the hills to the north changes colour within days. It is the year’s best combination of stable weather, low light and landscape, and it also coincides with fewer visitors than summer.
Key moments at a glance
Dry air, comfortable temperatures and the forest turning.
Very long days, tulips and the city reopening its terraces.
The best bet for skating, though the season is uncertain.
Neither firm snow nor good weather: the two dullest months.
04 Verdict
Go in September or October if you want the best balance of climate and landscape. That is when the city walks well, the canal stays navigable into mid-October and the forest on both banks justifies the trip on its own.
Go in February if ice is your goal, accepting the risk that the season may be short or never open. And avoid March and November: they are the two months when the city offers neither one thing nor the other.
