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Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

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Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#61

Post by mpg33 »

mfoy_ wrote: post #47
Ensorceled wrote: post #17

This 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.

-14C in Ottawa right now, it's the wind that makes it nippy, though.

+10C in St John's, NL right now.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#62

Post by tosseraccount »

sandworm101 wrote: post #54
tosseraccount wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Line was drawn through the great lakes". You might want to check that. Please examine the image very closely; it appears to be based on the border. Note Lake Superior and positions near lake Erie. https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-073611f762cf3ef329ee65... About 45 pixels to border, which is down the middle of the lake.

There was much silliness with the boarder. They actually drew some of it using blank maps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkYlIA7mgw (And that map missed a huge part of the can-us boarder, focusing only on the southern one.)

Yukon not see it?

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#63

Post by rpgmaker »

xutopia wrote: post #55

I heard somewhere that 90% of Canadians live within 100km (about 62 miles) of the US border. It's partly for that reason I don't buy the telecom's insistance that prices are higher because of the huge amount of land they have to cover.

If anyone is interested, this seems to be the source of this claim: http://www.purolatorinternational.com/canadian-market

According to the 2011 Canadian Census, more than 23 million people, almost 70 percent of the population, live in urban areas. Ninety percent of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the U.S. border. This means that the overwhelming majority of the Canadian population is easily reachable through traditional distribution routes.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#64

Post by ska »

One thing missing in the analysis is the fact that something approaching a fifth of the countries total population lives in and near one city (Toronto) that is nearly at the southernmost point of the country.

Ontario in total has nearly 40% of the population, and most of that is pretty far south relative to much of the rest of the country.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#65

Post by ska »

lucaspiller wrote: post #12
ascorbic wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: The Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland have the same USDA climate zone as south Texas (9a), but are around the same latitude as central Alaska.

TIL Texas isn't as warm as I thought...

Well, not in the winter.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#66

Post by ska »

RogerL wrote: post #7
randlet wrote: post #2

A 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.

I think the bigger driver there is inland vs. coastal (though Atlantic vs. Pacific circulation makes a big difference, too).

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#67

Post by mikeash »

sandworm101 wrote: post #50
mikeash wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago is over 200 miles from Canada. Lake Michigan is not part of the border with Canada, so the nearest point on the border is off in Lake Erie near Detroit.

But they are right beside the water body (the great lakes) that divides the nations. For purposes of trade, Detroit is practically on the boarder.

Detroit is right on the border. I assume you meant Chicago? Lake Michigan is entirely within the United States. Saying Chicago is "practically on the border" because it's on a lake which connects to another lake which contains the border doesn't make any sense to me. You might as well say that San Francisco is near Canada since it's on the Pacific Ocean.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#68

Post by raattgift »

Ensorceled wrote: post #17

This 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.

Not just "south", but actually way south; Toronto is about 43.5 N; Central London is 51.5 N. There's 60 nautical miles between each degree of latitude, so for an 8 degree difference, that's a bit more than 888 km.

Roughly the same distance further north from London and you arrive at Uppsala (north of Stockholm), and St Petersburg.

Toronto is on roughly the same latitude as Cannes, Nice, Toulouse and Monaco -- the Côte d'Azur / French Riviera.

Edmonton, Alberta is between Manchester and Leeds in England, and close to the latitude of Hamburg.

If you really want to bend your noodle, consider that Los Angeles is at the same latitude as Rabat, Morocco and Miami is at the same latitude as Luxor, Egypt.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#69

Post by ska »

tdsamardzhiev wrote: post #46

London (UK) lacks a real winter thanks to Gulfstream. So winters would be a lot warmer there. On the other hand, the summer is warmer in Toronto than in London. Really, though, most Canadians live either almost on the border or by the oceans. The weather there is about the same as in northern US. The weather in Alaska (at least Anchorage) is not that bad, either - a decent jacket would easily get you through the wint…

Toronto has a huge temperature range. -30c to +30c is not unheard of over a year.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#70

Post by logfromblammo »

sandworm101 wrote: post #50
mikeash wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago is over 200 miles from Canada. Lake Michigan is not part of the border with Canada, so the nearest point on the border is off in Lake Erie near Detroit.

But they are right beside the water body (the great lakes) that divides the nations. For purposes of trade, Detroit is practically on the boarder.

Practically, and also actually.

The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge both cross the Detroit River, which is only about 600m wide under the bridge and 750m over the tunnel.

Both of those links get a lot of cross-border traffic, and there has been a new bridge under construction since 2012, I think.

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