Summer 2025 has come to an end in Calgary — a season that might be remembered for its soggy start and prolonged warm and dry end.
September was the hottest the city has ever seen, according to Environment Canada records, with summer-like temperatures stretching throughout the month.
The month was also the driest in nearly a century and a half, with the weather agency reporting only 0.4 millimetres of precipitation falling in September. That’s the lowest amount on record in Calgary since 1885.
“It’s highly unusual to see almost nothing in terms of precipitation for the entire month, let alone into a big chunk of August as well,” said weather expert Kyle Brittain, who noted only 6.6 millimetres fell since Aug. 9.
It was a far cry from a very damp July, which ended up being the third wettest July on record for the city with 168 millimetres of rain.
Brittain called it “weather whiplash here in western Canada.”
July also saw some weather extremes, with what would become the costliest hailstorm of the season. The fast-moving storm on July 13 shredded leaves, knocked over trees, banged up homes and vehicles, and led to power outages.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada pegs the damages at $164 million.
Skies were overall clearer than Calgarians have seen in recent summers, with 110 smoke hours measured from May to the end of September, compared to a high of 512 hours logged in the summer of 2023.
Summer fun undeterred by wild weather
While July rain may have dampened some outdoor fun, many Calgary attractions reported that attendance more than picked up by summer’s end.
The rainy days in July were mostly concentrated at the end of the month, meaning the Calgary Stampede still saw its share of sunshine and came just shy of breaking 2024’s attendance record.
Over at Calaway Park, “2025 will go down as a very good year,” said general manager Bob Williams.
The rain meant July was “not so great,” he said, and the park had to close for one day because of the weather.
“And then August came along, and August was outstanding, and the fall has just easily exceeded our expectations with how nice the weather’s been,” he said.
Season passes saw a bump in sales, which Williams attributes to a rise in staycations, with inflation and U.S. tensions influencing people to stay closer to home.
Attendance was strong at Heritage Park, too, thanks in part to a 25-per-cent increase in the number of tourists visiting, said Eirin Bernie, the park’s communications and marketing manager.
“The weather was all over the place this year … [but] the weather doesn’t matter for tourists — they were coming no matter what,” said Bernie, who noted visitors from the U.S., Norway, the U.K. and Australia.
“And then for September, it has been absolutely beautiful,” said Bernie. “Even with our operating hours being less during the weekdays, our weekends have been seeing some amazing numbers.”
Harvest results
The cold, rainy start to the season proved bountiful for some crops.
At Johnson Fresh Farms in Barnwell, Alta., co-owner James Johnson said the Taber corn season will wrap the first weekend of October — later than some years.
“In years past, we’ve had where it’s been really hot all season, and so the corn matures really fast and we only make it to mid-September,” said Johnson.
“Some of our vegetables didn’t love the cool, wet July, but we’ll never complain about rain.”
Stephen Vandervalk, who farms barley, canola and durum wheat near Fort Macleod, Alta., also welcomed the rain.
“We were on the road to zero there,” said Vandervalk, who is also the vice-president of the Wheat Growers Association. “We had a tough 10 years in agriculture in Alberta, and in general it’s been quite dry.”
But then came the rain, helping in particular the canola yield since it is “one of the crops that will respond to rain, no matter how late it is,” said Vandervalk.
And when the rain held off in September, it allowed the harvest to finish ahead of schedule, Vandervalk said.
“That’s the tough part of farming: you want rain, but then you want it to shut off. So yeah, it’s worked out well this year.”
What has not worked out so well, he said, is prices driven by other factors, like tariffs, trade wars and an overabundance of some crops like barley.
“You almost can’t even give it away,” said Vandervalk.
What’s to come
As fall settles in and summer passes in the rearview mirror, the next question for many will be what’s in store for winter.
Brittain anticipates a La Niña forming this winter, which could mean Calgarians will see colder temperatures and more snow.
“We do expect things to turn into more classic winter conditions by the end of the fall,” he said.
