Winter Weather in Kitimat British Columbia, Canada

Daily high temperatures are around 37°F, rarely falling below 21°F or exceeding 47°F. The lowest daily average high temperature is 34°F on December 31.

Daily low temperatures are around 29°F, rarely falling below 10°F or exceeding 39°F. The lowest daily average low temperature is 27°F on December 31.

For reference, on July 30, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Kitimat typically range from 56°F to 73°F, while on December 31, the coldest day of the year, they range from 27°F to 34°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average winter 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.

Laubach, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany (4,794 miles away) and Koszalin, Poland (4,698 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Kitimat (view comparison).

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The winter in Kitimat experiences gradually decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 81% to 75%. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 74% on February 21.

The clearest day of the winter is February 21, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 26% of the time.

For reference, on October 22, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 82%, while on July 30, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 44%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Kitimat, the chance of a wet day over the course of the winter is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 63% and ending it at 54%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 71% on November 3, and its lowest chance is 38% on July 31.

Over the course of the winter in Kitimat, the chance of a day with only rain decreases from 52% to 47%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain decreases from 7% to 5%, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 6% throughout.

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 winter in Kitimat is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 8.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 12.9 inches or falls below 4.4 inches, and ending the season at 5.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 8.1 inches or falls below 2.7 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 winter in Kitimat is decreasing, starting the season at 7.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 18.2 inches or falls below 0.3 inches, and ending the season at 5.0 inches, when it rarely exceeds 14.5 inches or falls below -0.0 inches.

The highest average 31-day accumulation is 13.7 inches on January 7.

Over the course of the winter in Kitimat, 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 3 hours, 2 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 2 minutes, 3 seconds, and weekly increase of 14 minutes, 20 seconds.

The shortest day of the winter is December 21, with 7 hours, 22 minutes of daylight and the longest day is February 28, with 10 hours, 46 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the winter in Kitimat is 8:54 AM on December 28 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 30 minutes earlier at 7:24 AM on February 28.

The earliest sunset is 4:11 PM on December 13 and the latest sunset is 1 hour, 59 minutes later at 6:10 PM on February 28.

Daylight saving time is observed in Kitimat during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during the winter, so the entire season is in daylight saving time.

For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:01 AM and sets 17 hours, 10 minutes later, at 10:11 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 8:52 AM and sets 7 hours, 22 minutes later, at 4:13 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 winter 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 in Kitimat is essentially constant during the winter, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on July 22, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

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 in Kitimat is essentially constant during the winter, remaining within 0.3 miles per hour of 5.8 miles per hour throughout.

For reference, on December 28, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 6.0 miles per hour, while on August 2, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 3.6 miles per hour.

The highest daily average wind speed during the winter is 6.0 miles per hour on December 28.

The wind direction in Kitimat during the winter is predominantly out of the south from December 1 to December 15 and the east from December 15 to February 28.

Kitimat is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature in Kitimat is gradually decreasing during the winter, falling by 2°F, from 46°F to 43°F, over the course of the season.

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 in Kitimat typically lasts for 6.8 months (207 days), from around April 12 to around November 5, rarely starting before March 19 or after May 1, and rarely ending before October 12 or after November 24.

The winter in Kitimat is very likely fully outside of the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season reaching a low of 0% on January 24.

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 in Kitimat are very rapidly decreasing during the winter, decreasing by 1,335°F, from 1,335°F to 0°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 in Kitimat is increasing during the winter, rising by 1.3 kWh, from 0.5 kWh to 1.9 kWh, over the course of the season.

The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during the winter is 0.4 kWh on December 15.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Kitimat are 54.052 deg latitude, -128.653 deg longitude, and 69 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Kitimat contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 463 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 139 feet. Within 10 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (5,125 feet). Within 50 miles also contains extreme variations in elevation (8,976 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Kitimat is covered by trees (49%), sparse vegetation (21%), and grassland (19%), within 10 miles by trees (80%), and within 50 miles by trees (57%) and sparse vegetation (13%).