Waterton National Park Weather / Climate

Waterton National Park's climate is best summarized as mild, moist and windy. Its weather is always variable and quick to change.

Wind, with an average daily velocity of 30 kilometers per hour, is a noticeable and important element of the Waterton National Park's climate. While gusts of over 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) are common in the fall and winter, gusts of over 150 kilometers per hour (90 miles per hour) have been recorded in the main valley.

Waterton's summers are brief and cool with some hot spells (high 35° Celsius/94° Fahrenheit). Winters are long and relatively mild, with frequent warm spells (high 10° Celsius/50° Fahrenheit), often caused by Chinooks. The park is one of Alberta's warmest places in the winter, despite temperatures that can drop as low as -40° Celsius.

Waterton is a small piece of the international Crown of the Continent ecosystem. Its climate is strongly influenced by prevailing Pacific maritime weather systems. Warm, moist air flows over the Coast Mountains and Columbia Plateau before spilling across the narrowest point in the Rocky Mountain chain. This moist air often meets a less dominant weather system, the cold, dry Arctic Continental. When the cold Arctic air and warm Pacific air meet, the warmer air is forced up creating snow or rain.

As a result, Waterton National Park receives Alberta's highest average annual precipitation - 1072 centimeters (42 inches). This influence is also reflected in the big differences in moisture levels from west to east across the park. Cameron Lake, at the continental divide, receives an average of 152 centimeters (60 inches) annually while further east, the town site receives 107 centimeters (42 inches), while the park gate receives only 76 centimeters (30 inches).