Today
Has it rained enough in Calgary?
Rain soaked properly in 7 days ago, and the ground is still holding some of it.
Calgary has had 12.5mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 25.6mm, so that is about 49% of what the ground usually gets — and the driest October in 30 years was 9.8mm.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
3 days of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Calgary through a normal year
Across a normal year Calgary gets about 484.4mm of rain, most of it in June (104mm) and least in January (12.5mm).
A normal October in Calgary has rain on 9 days. Only 5 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Calgary one of the drier places this site covers in Canada in October — 10th of 11, against Vancouver at the wet end (249.2mm) and Edmonton at the dry end (23.1mm).
JanFMAMJunJASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.