Climate averages 1991–2020

Dartmouth weather
in May.

A cool, moderately wet month: the 5th warmest and the driest of the year.

Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.

Average high 13.6°C Daytime mean, May
Average low 6.0°C Night-time mean, May
Rainfall 83 mm 11 days with ≥1 mm
Daylight 15 h Sunrise to sunset, per day
Every month in Dartmouth · average highYear overview

May is a cool month in Dartmouth: daytime highs average 13.6°C and nights cool to about 6.0°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.

Expect about 83 mm of rain on roughly 11 days, which makes May a moderately wet month (the driest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 14 h 47 min on an average May day.

The nearest other city in this atlas is Halifax (3 km away). In May its highs average 12.0°C, 1.6°C cooler than Dartmouth, with 83 mm of rain.

Among the 86 cities listed in Canada, Dartmouth ranks 81st of 86 for the warmest May highs and joint 38th of 86 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 86 cities is 17.0°C; Dartmouth is 3.4°C cooler than that mean.

From May to June, average highs rise by 4.8°C to 18.4°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 83 mm to 98 mm.

The annual picture

May in context

30-year average
Average highAverage low°C
Average daily high and low temperatures by month The same values are available in the monthly table below. Lines show mean daily maxima and minima, not a forecast interval. -10-50510152025 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Monthly precipitation

Average total · mm
Average monthly precipitation totalsEach bar is a mean monthly total over 1991–2020. Full numbers are in the table. JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 1500

Averages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated

Every month, side by side

Dartmouth climate table

1991–2020
Monthly climate averages for Dartmouth, 1991–2020
MonthAverage highHigh / lowAverage lowPrecipitation mm/monthWet days ≥1 mm/dayDaylight hours/dayDay­light h/day
January -0.5°C-7.9°C-7.9°C11111.59.29 h
February -0.1°C-7.7°C-7.7°C10110.510.410 h
March 3.0°C-4.0°C-4.0°C10812.011.912 h
April 8.1°C1.1°C1.1°C9212.113.413 h
May, selected 13.6°C6.0°C6.0°C8311.214.815 h
June 18.4°C11.2°C11.2°C9811.715.516 h
July 22.2°C15.8°C15.8°C9010.315.215 h
August 22.5°C16.4°C16.4°C9110.214.114 h
September 19.3°C13.3°C13.3°C979.412.613 h
October 13.5°C8.0°C8.0°C12410.611.011 h
November 7.9°C2.6°C2.6°C12911.19.610 h
December 2.9°C-3.0°C-3.0°C13413.38.99 h

Precipitation (rain or snow, as water) is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A wet day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.

Compare places

May in nearby cities

Distance from Dartmouth

Read the numbers correctly

Climate, not a promise.

These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.

Sources, method and limits

How these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Dartmouth) is explained once on the Dartmouth year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.

Halifax lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.