Climate averages 1991–2020
Nanaimo weather
in March.
A cool, wet month: the 8th warmest and the 9th driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
March is a cool month in Nanaimo: daytime highs average 8.9°C and nights cool to about 3.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the 8th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 178 mm of rain on roughly 18 days, which makes March a wet month (the 9th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 11 h 51 min on an average March day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Vancouver (60 km away). In March its highs average 8.9°C, about as warm as Nanaimo, with 252 mm of rain.
Among the 86 cities listed in Canada, Nanaimo ranks joint 7th of 86 for the warmest March highs and 76th of 86 for the driest March (rainfall, lowest first). The mean March high of those 86 cities is 3.8°C; Nanaimo is 5.1°C warmer than that mean.
From March to April, average highs rise by 3.0°C to 11.9°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 178 mm to 123 mm.
The annual picture
March in context
Monthly rainfall
Average total · mmAverages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated
Every month, side by side
Nanaimo climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 5.9°C2.0°C | 2.0°C | 253 | 18.5 | 8.79 h |
| February | 6.9°C2.2°C | 2.2°C | 150 | 14.8 | 10.110 h |
| March, selected | 8.9°C3.5°C | 3.5°C | 178 | 17.6 | 11.912 h |
| April | 11.9°C5.8°C | 5.8°C | 123 | 15.2 | 13.714 h |
| May | 16.1°C9.5°C | 9.5°C | 85 | 12.1 | 15.315 h |
| June | 18.8°C12.4°C | 12.4°C | 69 | 10.6 | 16.116 h |
| July | 22.1°C15.1°C | 15.1°C | 43 | 7.3 | 15.816 h |
| August | 22.3°C15.3°C | 15.3°C | 54 | 6.3 | 14.414 h |
| September | 18.8°C12.5°C | 12.5°C | 86 | 9.3 | 12.713 h |
| October | 13.1°C8.2°C | 8.2°C | 177 | 15.2 | 10.811 h |
| November | 8.4°C4.4°C | 4.4°C | 264 | 18.7 | 9.29 h |
| December | 5.6°C2.0°C | 2.0°C | 247 | 18.6 | 8.38 h |
Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain 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
March in nearby cities
- Vancouver in MarchCanada · 60 kmHigh 8.9°C · Low 2.7°C · 252 mm rain
- Delta in MarchCanada · 65 kmHigh 9.8°C · Low 3.1°C · 156 mm rain
- North Vancouver in MarchCanada · 65 kmHigh 8.8°C · Low 2.5°C · 252 mm rain
- Burnaby in MarchCanada · 73 kmHigh 8.9°C · Low 2.1°C · 252 mm rain
- New Westminster in MarchCanada · 75 kmHigh 9.2°C · Low 1.2°C · 252 mm rain
- Surrey in MarchCanada · 81 kmHigh 9.5°C · Low 1.5°C · 179 mm rain
- Coquitlam in MarchCanada · 85 kmHigh 9.2°C · Low 1.6°C · 280 mm rain
- Victoria in MarchCanada · 92 kmHigh 8.8°C · Low 4.3°C · 89 mm rain
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 limitsHow these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Nanaimo) is explained once on the Nanaimo year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.