Best time to visit Ottawa

Ottawa is a city of two halves. September scores 77 and December scores 13 — a 64-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs May to September — 5 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 26 °C and January the coolest at -6.5 °C — a 32.5 °C spread across the year. At the other end, 162 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. June to July carry the rain — up to 16 wet days in a month — while January, February, March and September drop as low as 11. That 5-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Ottawa, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 8.8 hours in winter to 15.6 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are September, August, May. The one to think twice about is December. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Ottawa month by month