Rose Festival Parade Weather Welland, Ontario  1962 - 2020 compiled by Rob Paola Environment Canada meteorologist

The highlight of any Rose Festival is the annual grand parade that winds through the streets of Welland, an early summer tradition that celebrated its 50th anniversary on June 19 2011.  Since the inaugural parade in 1962, parade organizers, participants and onlookers have experienced all sorts of weather on route, from cold damp conditions to searing heat. Generally though, the Rose Festival parade has been blessed with fine summerlike weather.. with afternoon highs averaging a comfortable 24C.  Since 1962, only a handful of parades have had rain during the 2 hour event, and three of those were just sprinkles.  The vast majority have been rain free although some parade days have had rain before or after the parade.  And even though summer often brings thunderstorms to Southern Ontario, only one Rose festival parade has been interrupted due to a thunderstorm.  That was back on July 3rd, 1965 when a 30-minute deluge at the start of the parade dropped 22 mm of rain on the proceedings and threatened to postpone the event. The parade went on however, minus a few bands that could not play due to wet instruments.  In 2020, the entire Rose Festival was cancelled for the first time in its 59 year history due to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the parade which was scheduled for June 21st. The weather that day was sunny, clear and hot with a high of 31.5C, which would have made it the second hottest Rose Festival parade day ever, second only to 1966.      

A look at the weather history of the parade since 1962 reveals these other weather tidbits..

• The first parade, June 23 1962, was held under ideal conditions.. sunshine and warm temperatures with a high of 26.7C (80F)
• The hottest parade.. July 2 1966 with a sweltering high of 34C (93F), and a humidex near 40.  St John's ambulance treated several people that day for heat exhaustion
• The coldest parade.. June 21 1992 with a high of only 11C under overcast skies, it felt more like April than late June.  Appropriately, this weekend marked the start of one of the coolest and wettest summers on record in Southern Ontario.. the infamous "year without a summer" caused by the lingering effects of the Mt Pinatubo volcanic eruption the year before
• Average daily high over the parades has been 24C (75F), with an average low of 14C  
• The majority of parades have been held with temperatures of 25-29C. 9 were cooler than 20C while 5 have been held with temperatures of 30C or higher (4 of those since 2005)  
• The parades of the 1970s were generally the coolest, with an average high of only 21C. Only one parade that decade was held in temperatures above 25C (1976).
• The parades of the 1980s were generally the sunniest and warmest with an average high of almost 26C and 6 of 10 held in bright sunshine    

The following table shows weather conditions for every Rose Festival parade since 1962.

* Parade weather information is based on Welland and local area weather records from Westside Firehall weather station, Welland airport data, as well as newspaper and social media accounts. Click on bolded years for video clips of parades that year. In the event of any inaccuracies or corrections, please email rob.paola@shaw.ca

 For additional information on weather history in Welland, see History of the Welland climate station.