BarrieVotes.ca 2026 municipal election · civic data and charts

Barrie's weather since 1973: snow, rain, heat and cold

Barrie's years have warmed: averaged over the last ten years, 2016 to 2025, the year was 2.0 °C warmer than over the first ten on record, and nights of −20 °C or colder fell from 17 a year to 6. Snowfall has not followed a straight line. The record is Environment and Climate Change Canada's Shanty Bay station, on the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay about 5 km east of downtown, the longest unbroken daily record for the Barrie area, kept since 1973.

How much snow does Barrie get?

Each winter Average of the last ten winters

Snowfall at Shanty Bay by season (July to June), 1973–74 to 2025–26, centimetres 0 200 400 600 cm 1973–74 1979–80 1985–86 1991–92 1997–98 2003–04 2009–10 2015–16 2021–22
Snowfall at Shanty Bay by season (July to June), 1973–74 to 2025–26, centimetres 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25 2025–26 600 cm
Total snowfall in centimetres, July 1 to June 30, so each winter is one point; the line through them is the average of that winter and the nine before it, this site's arithmetic.
Sums of Environment Canada's daily snowfall at Shanty Bay; a season missing more than 10% of its days is left out rather than undercounted. Shanty Bay, on the bay, gets more snow than the city centre: Environment Canada's 1981–2010 normals give it 264.7 cm a year against 223.0 cm at the former Barrie water pollution control centre station.

What the City spends clearing it, and how often the winter budget runs over, is on snow clearing.

Sources: Historical Climate Data, daily: SHANTY BAY (6117684) and BARRIE WPCC (6110557), Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Original document. Daily maximum, minimum and mean temperature, precipitation and snowfall, as downloaded. Every count, sum and mean on the page is this site's arithmetic from them; a year or season missing more than 10% of its days is left blank. Shanty Bay is on the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay about 5 km east of downtown Barrie. Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010: SHANTY BAY and BARRIE WPCC, Environment and Climate Change Canada. Original document. Read through ECCC's GeoMet API. Both stations' 1981–2010 normals are calculated from 1981 to 2006 only. No 1991–2020 normals are published for either station. All retrieved October 11, 2026.

How often does Barrie get heavy rain?

Days with 25 mm of precipitation or more at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025 0 2 4 6 8 1 1973 5 4 4 1976 3 2 3 1979 5 4 4 1982 3 4 6 1985 8 5 4 1988 3 5 4 1991 3 2 2 1994 7 7 4 1997 7 8 8 2000 7 6 6 2003 4 6 4 2006 8 6 6 2009 7 6 6 2012 5 3 5 2015 6 3 5 2018 2 5 6 2021 2 3 6 2024 4
Days with 25 mm of precipitation or more at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025 1973 1 1974 5 1975 4 1976 4 1977 3 1978 2 1979 3 1980 5 1981 4 1982 4 1983 3 1984 4 1985 6 1986 8 1987 5 1988 4 1989 3 1990 5 1991 4 1992 3 1993 2 1994 2 1995 7 1996 7 1997 4 1998 7 1999 8 2000 8 2001 7 2002 6 2003 6 2004 4 2005 6 2006 4 2007 8 2008 6 2009 6 2010 7 2011 6 2012 6 2013 5 2014 3 2015 5 2016 6 2017 3 2018 5 2019 2 2020 5 2021 6 2022 2 2023 3 2024 6 2025 4
Days on which 25 mm or more of rain or melted snow fell.
Each tooltip gives the year's wettest day. The wettest day in the record is June 2, 1995, with 103.2 mm.

The stormwater system those days fall on, and its condition, are on climate and flooding and the infrastructure gap.

Source: Historical Climate Data, daily: SHANTY BAY (6117684) and BARRIE WPCC (6110557), Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Original document. Daily maximum, minimum and mean temperature, precipitation and snowfall, as downloaded. Every count, sum and mean on the page is this site's arithmetic from them; a year or season missing more than 10% of its days is left blank. Shanty Bay is on the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay about 5 km east of downtown Barrie. Retrieved October 11, 2026.

Is Barrie getting hotter?

Hot day and warm night Hot day only Warm night only

Days of heat at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025: hot days, warm nights, and both 0 10 20 30 40 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 0 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021 2024
Days of heat at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025: hot days, warm nights, and both 1973 5 9 4 1974 1 3 1 1975 3 11 1 1976 2 1 1977 2 7 2 1978 2 6 1979 6 2 1980 1 1 1981 3 1 1982 1 2 2 1983 3 19 8 1984 3 3 5 1985 2 2 1986 1 2 2 1987 6 7 4 1988 6 17 3 1989 2 8 3 1990 1 4 3 1991 3 12 2 1992 0 1993 1 5 2 1994 1 4 2 1995 1 10 4 1996 1 2 1997 5 1 1998 1 9 1 1999 5 12 1 2000 2 2001 3 15 2002 5 20 7 2003 8 1 2004 1 2 1 2005 2 23 5 2006 4 6 3 2007 2 11 3 2008 1 4 2 2009 1 3 1 2010 5 9 6 2011 3 8 3 2012 5 19 3 2013 3 10 6 2014 3 2 2015 2 12 2 2016 7 25 6 2017 2 5 2018 5 18 9 2019 4 8 2020 3 21 4 2021 3 10 7 2022 2 10 3 2023 11 1 2024 3 5 5 2025 7 22 2
Each bar is one year's days of heat, every day counted once: a hot day is a high of 30 °C or more, a warm night a low that stayed at 20 °C or more. "Both" is a hot day whose low also stayed at 20 °C, the days with no relief.
The low is Environment Canada's minimum for the calendar day, so the night is usually that day's early morning. Counts from the daily values at Shanty Bay, which records to the nearest half degree; the station sits by the bay, which keeps its nights milder than inland.
Nights of −20 °C or colder at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025 1973 13 1974 12 1975 9 1976 21 1977 20 1978 24 1979 18 1980 19 1981 17 1982 20 1983 12 1984 18 1985 10 1986 13 1987 9 1988 12 1989 21 1990 3 1991 9 1992 8 1993 19 1994 27 1995 15 1996 19 1997 12 1998 2 1999 9 2000 16 2001 8 2002 2 2003 26 2004 24 2005 15 2006 2 2007 10 2008 7 2009 13 2010 4 2011 7 2012 3 2013 11 2014 20 2015 23 2016 6 2017 8 2018 8 2019 9 2020 4 2021 3 2022 17 2023 2 2024 1 2025 3
Nights of −20 °C or colder at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025 1973 13 1974 12 1975 9 1976 21 1977 20 1978 24 1979 18 1980 19 1981 17 1982 20 1983 12 1984 18 1985 10 1986 13 1987 9 1988 12 1989 21 1990 3 1991 9 1992 8 1993 19 1994 27 1995 15 1996 19 1997 12 1998 2 1999 9 2000 16 2001 8 2002 2 2003 26 2004 24 2005 15 2006 2 2007 10 2008 7 2009 13 2010 4 2011 7 2012 3 2013 11 2014 20 2015 23 2016 6 2017 8 2018 8 2019 9 2020 4 2021 3 2022 17 2023 2 2024 1 2025 3
Days whose low fell to −20 °C or below, from Environment Canada's daily minimum temperatures at Shanty Bay.

Annual mean temperature

Annual mean temperature at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025, degrees Celsius 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 °C 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 2025
Annual mean temperature at Shanty Bay, 1973 to 2025, degrees Celsius 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 10 °C
The mean of the twelve monthly means of daily mean temperature; a year with any month missing more than five days is left blank.
Environment Canada's 1981–2010 normal for the station is 6.78 °C.
Sources: Historical Climate Data, daily: SHANTY BAY (6117684) and BARRIE WPCC (6110557), Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Original document. Daily maximum, minimum and mean temperature, precipitation and snowfall, as downloaded. Every count, sum and mean on the page is this site's arithmetic from them; a year or season missing more than 10% of its days is left blank. Shanty Bay is on the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay about 5 km east of downtown Barrie. Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010: SHANTY BAY and BARRIE WPCC, Environment and Climate Change Canada. Original document. Read through ECCC's GeoMet API. Both stations' 1981–2010 normals are calculated from 1981 to 2006 only. No 1991–2020 normals are published for either station. All retrieved October 11, 2026.

Has Barrie had tornadoes?

Two have struck the city. On May 31, 1985, at about 5 p.m., a tornado rated F4 crossed Barrie from the southwest on a track 15 km long and up to 600 m wide; Environment Canada's database records 8 people killed and 155 injured. On July 15, 2021, an EF2 tornado with winds estimated at 210 km/h tracked 12.5 km from Barrie's south end toward Innisfil; the Northern Tornadoes Project counted 11 injuries and 470 houses damaged, 13 of them to EF2 level. Every other confirmed tornado within 30 km of City Hall was rated F0 to F2 or EF0.

Confirmed tornadoes within 30 km of Barrie City Hall, 1980–2009 and 2017–2026
DateNearest community RatingPath Casualties and damage
JarrattF2 970 m long
BarrieF4 15 km long, up to 600 m wide8 killed, 155 injured
EssaF1 500 m long
WarminsterF0 3 km long
ThorntonF0
OrilliaF0
DeerhurstF0
ElmvaleF0 1.5 km long
New LowellF1 12.6 km long
MoonstoneF0 3.2 km long
2010 to 2016: no record in either source
Oro StationEF0 8.6 km long
CraighurstEF0
Barrie to InnisfilEF2 12.5 km long, up to 510 m wide11 injured; 470 houses damaged
BordenEF0 1.7 km long
Ratings to 2009 are Fujita (F) ratings from Environment Canada's verified database; from 2017 they are Enhanced Fujita (EF) ratings from Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project.
The two scales are not the same. Neither source covers 2010 to 2016, so those years are a gap in the record, not a calm stretch. The Northern Tornadoes Project also logged straight-line wind damage (downbursts) and funnel sightings nearby that were not tornadoes; they are not listed. A blank cell means the source gives no figure.
Sources: Canadian National Tornado Database: Verified Events (1980–2009), Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Original document. The May 31, 1985 Barrie tornado: Fujita rating 4, 8 deaths, 155 injuries, a 15,000 m track up to 600 m wide. The full workbook is kept in research/weather/tornado/. Northern Tornadoes Project — Event Summaries (open data), events within 30 km of Barrie City Hall, Northern Tornadoes Project, Western University. Original document. The project's investigated events from 2017 on, each with its classification (tornado, downburst, vortex), Enhanced Fujita rating, path, injuries and damage summary. The 2021 Barrie tornado's record is final: EF2, an estimated 210 km/h, a 12.5 km track up to 510 m wide, 11 injuries and 470 houses damaged. The project permits non-commercial use with credit. All retrieved October 11, 2026.

About this record

Every figure on this page is this site's count or sum from Environment Canada's daily values, unadjusted. Since 2007 Environment Canada has marked each day's values from this station with a data-quality symbol (†) whose meaning its downloads do not state; they are used as published. Environment Canada's homogenized long-term series, the right source for measuring a trend precisely, have no Barrie station, and it publishes no 1991–2020 normals for one. 2026 is not drawn until the year is complete.

Common questions

How much snow does Barrie get?

At Environment Canada's Shanty Bay station on Kempenfelt Bay, a winter brought 274 cm of snow on average over the ten seasons to 2025–26, and 290 cm over its first ten, from 1973–74. Single seasons range widely, which the chart on this page shows.

Is Barrie getting warmer?

At the Shanty Bay station the average annual temperature was 7.9 °C for 2016 to 2025, against 5.9 °C for 1973 to 1982, and nights of −20 °C or colder have become rarer.

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