That article really needed a map:
Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
101–110 of 137 posts
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#102This reminds me of the time when I was crossing into Quebec with my parents in July many years ago, and one of the cars waiting to get across the border had Virginia (or some nearby southern state) plates and (alpine) skis on the roof of the car!
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#103This is missing the point. People think of Canadians as tough hardy, northerners because it's -8C in Toronto and we've been having really nice February, last year it was like -20C all month. It's -12 in Montreal right now. It's still interesting to think about it but don't try to imply that it's not actually cold, bitter and rough sledding here because we're "south" of London. Because it's 8C in London right now.
And it's 6C in Calgary right now (high of 16C today!).
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#104The article compares Canada mostly to Europe. It's also interesting to compare Canada to the U.S., which is "obviously" south of Canada on the map.
- If you start in downtown Detroit and go south, you end up in Canada.
- 13.7M Canadians (1/3 of the population) live in Ontario. Nearly all of these are south of Minneapolis/St. Paul (home to 3.3M Americans).
- 10M more Canadians live further north in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward. Nearly all of these are south of Seattle/Tacoma (home to 3.6M Americans).
The only major Canadian cities that are strictly north of the contiguous U.S. are Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg. And going back to Europe, all of these are strictly south of Scandinavia.
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#105It doesn't make much sense to compare temperatures at latitudes from different sides of the Atlantic ocean. The Gulf Stream [1] makes the European cost a lot warmer at the same latitude. E.g. NYC is colder than North of Spain despite being roughly at the same latitude. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream
The idea that the Gulf Stream per se is responsible for climate changes in northern Europe has been called into question. It turns out that simply having prevailing winds crossing the ocean is by far the biggest factor. The same phenomenon is observed on the West coast of North America but the Kuroshio Current in the Pacific does not carry the same warm current as far North.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2006/4/the-sourc...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-simulations-qu...
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#106The article compares Canada mostly to Europe. It's also interesting to compare Canada to the U.S., which is "obviously" south of Canada on the map. - If you start in downtown Detroit and go south, you end up in Canada. - 13.7M Canadians (1/3 of the population) live in Ontario. Nearly all of these are south of Minneapolis/St. Paul (home to 3.3M Americans). - 10M more Canadians live further north in Quebec, Nova Scotia…
Also to note, Ontario experiences harsh winters because of the lake effect from the Great Lakes, but it is the exact same winter that Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Chicago get. Toronto and Buffalo have the same weather essentially.
Vancouver rarely receives any snow, and is very similar to Seattle (there only 2 hours apart).
I was in Toronto last week and the temperature was in the 50s. The East coast of the US has had a colder and harsher winter than most of Canada. With that said last year in February while I was also visiting Toronto, the temperate reached -31.
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the rest is cold . ... says the guy who used to bicycle to university in -37C (-45 with wind chill!) Fun fact: the plastic buckles on knapsacks will shatter like glass in -45 weather. Try biking to school while holding a knapsack in one hand. On snow and ice. I'm smarter now.
Biking to school in -35C weather isn't too bad if you're properly dressed and practised at it. The trick is to avoid sweating. It's when something goes wrong when you realize just how bad an idea biking in -35C weather. Being dressed for exercise in -35C weather means that you're severely underdressed for delicate bike repairs at the side of the road, and you can get dangerously cold very quickly. - someone else who…
I used to bicycle commute to work in Ottawa year round (I'm not smarter now, but I work from home instead) and as you say, it's totally feasible (fun even!) as long as you dress smartly and ride at a fairly casual pace. If your bike breaks down you're definitely better off walking it somewhere warm to make repairs rather than fixing it on the side of the road!
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#108Because of this, many North Americans choose to disbelieve it when doctors in the UK say that people living in the British Isles cannot get Vitamin D from the Sun over the winter until some time in March.
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#109Because of this, many North Americans choose to disbelieve it when doctors in the UK say that people living in the British Isles cannot get Vitamin D from the Sun over the winter until some time in March.
That probably has more to do with the lack of sunlight due to weather, not latitude
Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think
#110A fun fact that usually trips people up is that the southern most point in Canada[1] is actually as far south as the North end of California. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelee,_Ontario
They must have a lot of palm trees there! ;) It doesn't make a lot of sense to compare latitudes of different areas of the world (I know, you did say 'fun fact', I'm referring more to the article). In CA we have a Mediterranean climate that lets me run around in t-shirts and shorts in the middle of winter. North of Cleveland (Pelee)? Not so much. I lived just off the Canadian border over in that area once. Once.
Actually if you want to fight the "Canada is buried under the snow" stereotype you should look at British Colombia (Vancouver, Victoria...)
Being on the Pacific coast it's a much milder climate than the US East Coast. Being right to Seattle it's basically the same climate.