Weather in Ottawa in February

The month to avoid. Of the twelve, February is the one to avoid. Highs sit at -4.9 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 9 of 12 in Ottawa: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 11 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at -4.9 °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: 28 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 10.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -37.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 27 mm — roughly 49% of the month's rain in one day.

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 111 mm against 22 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 55 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 5.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 94%, which at -4.9 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 1.6 °C warmer than January, and March adds another 6.5 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in February

10.4 hours of daylight, gaining 1.5 hours across the month. That is between Ottawa's extremes of 15.6 and 8.8 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Ottawa has no sea to moderate it, and it shows: 42.4 °C separates the hottest afternoon of the year from the coldest night. That is a genuinely continental range, and it means summer and winter here are barely the same place.

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 Ottawa versus nearby

If Ottawa is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Kingston is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.8 °C warmer, 3 days more rain. Montréal is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: February is a compromise. September is 58 points better and is what Ottawa 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 Ottawa

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