Weather in Kingston in February

The month to avoid. February is the month most people should skip in Kingston. Highs sit at -1.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Kingston's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 64 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 14 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at -1.1 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 26 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 10.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -27.6 °C.

February is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest February on record still delivered 119 mm against 40 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 61 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 13.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 87%, which at -1.1 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: -1.3 °C in January, -1.1 here, 3.1 in March. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in February

10.4 hours of daylight, gaining 1.4 hours across the month. That is between Kingston's extremes of 15.5 and 8.9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 31.6 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

February in Kingston versus nearby

If Kingston is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Ottawa is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.8 °C cooler, 3 days less rain. Peterborough is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 5 days less rain.

So: February is a compromise. September is 61 points better and is what Kingston is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Kingston

See all twelve months in Kingston, or where else to go in February.