Spring Weather at Banff, Alta. Canada

Daily high temperatures increase by 26°F, from 33°F to 59°F, rarely falling below 21°F or exceeding 69°F.

Daily low temperatures increase by 24°F, from 17°F to 40°F, rarely falling below -2°F or exceeding 47°F.

For reference, on August 2, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Banff, Alta. typically range from 49°F to 71°F, while on December 27, the coldest day of the year, they range from 9°F to 23°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average spring temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Lillehammer, Norway (4,131 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Banff, Alta. (view comparison).

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The spring at Banff, Alta. experiences gradually decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 66% to 60%. The highest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 67% on March 15.

The clearest day of the spring is May 31, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 41% of the time.

For reference, on March 15, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 67%, while on July 26, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 63%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Banff, Alta., the chance of a wet day over the course of the spring is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 12% and ending it at 39%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 41% on June 14, and its lowest chance is 7% on January 31.

Over the course of the spring at Banff, Alta., the chance of a day with only rain increases from 3% to 38%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 2% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow decreases from 7% to 0%.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the spring at Banff, Alta. is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 0.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.4 inches, and ending the season at 2.8 inches, when it rarely exceeds 5.0 inches or falls below 1.4 inches.

Snowfall

As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day snowfall during the spring at Banff, Alta. is rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 3.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 9.2 inches or falls below 0.3 inches, and ending the season at 0.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 1.7 inches or falls below -0.0 inches.

The highest average 31-day accumulation is 3.7 inches on March 5.

Over the course of the spring at Banff, Alta., the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day increases by 5 hours, 17 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 3 minutes, 29 seconds, and weekly increase of 24 minutes, 22 seconds.

The shortest day of the spring is March 1, with 10 hours, 59 minutes of daylight and the longest day is May 31, with 16 hours, 16 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the spring at Banff, Alta. is 8:05 AM on March 10 and the earliest sunrise is 2 hours, 33 minutes earlier at 5:32 AM on May 31.

The earliest sunset is 6:24 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 3 hours, 24 minutes later at 9:48 PM on May 31.

Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 3:00 AM on March 10, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier.

For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:26 AM and sets 16 hours, 35 minutes later, at 10:01 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 8:44 AM and sets 7 hours, 53 minutes later, at 4:37 PM.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the spring of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy at Banff, Alta. is essentially constant during the spring, remaining around 0% throughout.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed at Banff, Alta. is gradually decreasing during the spring, decreasing from 5.1 miles per hour to 4.3 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on January 17, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 5.5 miles per hour, while on August 4, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 3.6 miles per hour.

The hourly average wind direction at Banff, Alta. throughout the spring is predominantly from the west, with a peak proportion of 66% on March 1.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season at Banff, Alta. typically lasts for 3.8 months (117 days), from around May 22 to around September 17, rarely starting before May 5 or after June 9, and rarely ending before August 31 or after October 3.

During the spring at Banff, Alta., the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly increasing rising from 0% to 73% over the course of the season.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days at Banff, Alta. are gradually increasing during the spring, increasing by 71°F, from 0°F to 71°F, over the course of the season.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Banff, Alta. is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 3.4 kWh, from 2.9 kWh to 6.3 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Banff, Alta. are 51.183 deg latitude, -115.567 deg longitude, and 4,554 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Banff, Alta. contains large variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 2,133 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 4,837 feet. Within 10 miles contains large variations in elevation (5,518 feet). Within 50 miles also contains extreme variations in elevation (9,245 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Banff, Alta. is covered by trees (58%), sparse vegetation (13%), and shrubs (11%), within 10 miles by trees (48%) and sparse vegetation (23%), and within 50 miles by trees (51%) and sparse vegetation (20%).