A key feature of Victoria's climate - and one that distinguishes it from most other places in Canada - is its mildness. The average annual temperature at Victoria Gonzales is 10.6 degrees, among the warmest places in Canada. What's really unique - at least in Canada - is how little this varies throughout the year. The coldest month on the year in Victoria is December, with a mean temperature of 5.3 degrees, while the warmest month is August, with a mean temperature of 16.3. That is a difference of just 11 degrees between the coldest month of the year and the warmest. By comparison, this difference is 14 degrees for Vancouver, 27 degrees for Toronto, and 36 degrees for Winnipeg.
Victoria has the mildest winters (Dec-Feb) of any city in Canada, with an average daily high/low temperature of 8.0 / 3.7 degrees. Victoria also has among the coolest summers (Jun-Aug) of any city in Canada, with an average daily high/low of 19.9 / 11.3. This is all thanks to being surrounded by water. In particular, the Strait of Juan de Fuca to our south has a very strong moderating influence. I'll talk about this more in a later post on microclimates and variation around the Victoria region.
The chart below summarizes the average daily high and low temperatures and the mean monthly temperatures at Victoria Gonzales. The warmest average monthly temperature ever recorded at Victoria Gonzales was 17.8 degrees for July 2004 - almost 2 degrees warmer than the average July - followed by 17.7 degrees in July 1958 and 17.6 degrees in July 2015 and August 1997. The coldest average monthly temperature ever recorded was -3.3 in January 1950. That's 9 degrees colder than the average January, and far colder than any other month at Victoria Gonzales - the next coldest was -1.4 in January 1916. The warmest year on record at Victoria Gonzales was 2015, with a mean temperature of 11.6 degrees. The coolest year on record was 1916, with an average temperature of 8.6 degrees.
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