Weather in Vancouver in March

The month to avoid. March is the month most people should skip in Vancouver. Highs sit at 7.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

March ranks 9 of 12 in Vancouver: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 20 of the month's 31 days, 9 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 7.1 °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: 7 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 4.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 19.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -14.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 85 mm — roughly 34% of the month's rain in one day.

March is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest March on record still delivered 437 mm against 49 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 253 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 3.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 91%, which at 7.1 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 1.8 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 4 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in March

11.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.8 hours across the month. That is between Vancouver's extremes of 16.2 and 8.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 23.6 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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.

March in Vancouver versus nearby

If Vancouver is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Maple Ridge is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.7 °C warmer, 1 day more rain. Nanaimo is a better bet in March — 2.6 °C warmer, 2 days less rain.

So: March is a compromise. July is 60 points better and is what Vancouver 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 Vancouver

See all twelve months in Vancouver, or where else to go in March.