Wich Canadians Metro Areas (over 100 000) are offering the best quality of life ?

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Sure, if you're using Canadian definitions for some of these words.

In the rest of the world, Windsor would have "cold" winters and SW BC would have "mild" winters.

Another point about climate severity is that it's not just about winter temperatures and snowfalls. We Canadians tend to focus just on this.

But I would think that a place like Windsor would get dinged because of high, suffocating humidity in the summer. A place like Calgary might actually see its severity level decreased a bit as its summer temperatures, while not super-warm, are quite comfortable and it's usually dry.

Definitely using Canadian definitions.

Agreed on the fixation on winter. Atlantic Canada and BC, for example, have the best summers in the country, I think. Less humid than the sweaty/suffocating July/August weather in Central Canada, but without the parched dryness of the prairies. Cools off somewhat in the evenings, but stays warm enough to linger on patios, etc, late into the night, which isn't always the case in AB/SK.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In the rest of the world, Windsor would have "cold" winters and SW BC would have "mild" winters.

I am not even sure they would qualify as "mild". SW BC experiences "average" winters in my opinion when compared to the rest of the world.

[someone123]

The breakdown by region is problematic because they are so large and diverse. The difference in winter conditions between Ottawa and Windsor or Halifax and Edmundston is much larger than the difference between Halifax and Windsor, for example. And there is a big difference between Winnipeg and Lethbridge.

A lot of the confusion is due to the assumption that climate (or economic health or whatever) follows the regional breakdown.

I'm also a bit skeptical that perceptions of which place is better or worse need to be explained by facts. Sometimes the perceptions are just wrong. Some parts of Atlantic Canada get lots of snow for example but others don't, by Canadian standards. I don't think this proves that there must be something worse about the smaller quantity of snow that is measured.

[ILoveHalifax]

[QUOTE=SaskScraper;7263984]^^^



It's easy to tell what people have been & haven't been to Saskatchewan, accuracy on facts becomes clear very early on.



You calling me a liar?

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

Aww what was I thinking! I thought I checked each year but completely missed that day last decade.. I am glad I could reel you back in on your exaggeration though..
as far as your claim:


I checked Halifax airport records and think you missed something too,
it should probably read..

Halifax ranged from a hi of -1 to + 5 and lows from -17 to -2

...

As has been discussed earlier in the thread, the airport is a long way from Halifax and has a different climate. In fact, it's different climate was the very reason it was moved so far out of town. The balmy, marine climate of the coast was problematic in the high levels of fog present.

[ssiguy]

When it comes to this ranking of "quality of life" it is a personal choice. Some people like the snow, others the rain, some would rather be freezing in the sunshine then soaking just about zero. Some love the dry of the Prairies summers other's love the steamy heat of Ont/Que. Some hate extreme cold while others will gladly take it to see the magnificent Northern Lights every night.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

As has been discussed earlier in the thread, the airport is a long way from Halifax and has a different climate. In fact, it's different climate was the very reason it was moved so far out of town. The balmy, marine climate of the coast was problematic in the high levels of fog present.

I just checked the distance on google maps and the distance from the airport to Halifax City Hall is almost exactly the same as the distance from Saskatoon City Hall to Aberdeen SK. About 37km.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

Saskatoon gets a full month of days worth of sunshine more per year than Halifax:
http://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Canada/Cities/sunshine-annual-average.php

I'm just comparing weather facts between two cities.

This is interesting, because apparently Halifax gets the third highest amount of annual sunshine (or maybe it was number of sunny days?) in Canada - the city's been financing small solar energy projects and this was one of the reasons why they chose to go that route. So if that's correct than Saskatoon would be #2 or #1 (I'm guessing this excluded small desert towns of >10,000)

Also Saskatoon gets more sun, but Halifax has longer days in the winter due to being at a lower latitude


I literally shudder at the thought of anything past -10, so I think Sask would take some getting used to (the coldest place I've ever been was Tremblant and I think lows were around -30 while I was there). Whether Halifax is "better" though almost feels like a moot point. We can point to all the statistics we want, but IMO winters here are pretty awful. Sure it tends to hover "around 0" (probably -2 +/-5 degrees, on average) but the frequent temp swings aren't very conducive to winter sports, and mean that once in a while, everything is covered in clean, fluffy white snow, but more often than not the ground (and roads and sidewalks) is some combination of mud, salty slush, or rough ice, and getting around by any means is less pleasant than someplace where the snow just stays on the ground as snow all winter. The feeling of a strong wind whipping off the harbour on a cold day is also something that the statistics don't capture very well. Parts of Halifax are also prone to flooding during the winter which I doubt would be a problem in Saskatoon.

In short just because Halifax's winter is "milder" than most in Canada doesn't mean that the weather is necessarily more pleasant or "better". It's just a different kind of bad. There are many parts of Canada (especially those near mountains, or with rivers that freeze) where winter is embraced as a time of year that's legitimately enjoyable. Halifax isn't one of those places.

[Nouvellecosse]

Well the original weather discussion was merely about which city's weather is most "severe" and SS posted a link to a climate severity index. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/climate-severity/

The index apparently considers temperatures, but also considers a number of other factors including wind, fog, and precipitation. I suppose one could assume that the severity index intended to determine which climates are the best, but ultimately that's a matter of personal preference. If you were to compare the weather here to a place with basically sunshine, cloud, and snowfall, and cold but predictable temps, I'd consider our climate more severe due to the constant changing, unpredictability, and possibility of storms. Not to mention that temperature swings can cause flash freezing, and ice storms.

[someone123]

There isn't really such a thing as cold but predictable temperatures in Canada. Most of the colder areas are also much more variable.

The cold places also tend to have longer winters and there is a transition time everywhere. The place that's -20 in winter is around 0 in November instead of January. And some of those places occasionally get snowfall or freezing rain during any month of the year. If you want to avoid sloppy transitional weather you pretty much need to live in coastal BC and even there it happens sometimes.

It is true that some places get much less precipitation than others. Halifax has a very wet climate. It's not unusually snowy or freezing-rain-prone though.

[Nouvellecosse]

I always thought of most parts of Canada that weren't near the coast, lacked chinooks, and weren't really far south (like parts of S. Ont) had winters that were basically cold but fairly predictable.

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I always thought of most parts of Canada that weren't near the coast, lacked chinooks, and weren't really far south (like parts of S. Ont) had winters that were basically cold but fairly predictable.

Nope...you never know how cold (or in the case of this year, not cold) it's going to be.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I always thought of most parts of Canada that weren't near the coast, lacked chinooks, and weren't really far south (like parts of S. Ont) had winters that were basically cold but fairly predictable.

Really warm here so far, but generally, you'd have used to be pretty right IMO.

[someone123]

I think the two dominant factors that correlate with variability in temperature, at least as far as most Canadian cities are concerned, are latitude and marine influence. Farther south and you tend to have warmer temperatures with bit less variability (equatorial climates hardly vary at all, polar climates are all over the place). More marine influence and you get warmer temperatures and a lot less variability. So colder places tend to have more variability on the whole, both during a year and from day to day (or hour to hour).

Victoria's a classic marine-influenced northern climate. Winnipeg's a continental climate with very little marine influence at the same latitude. Halifax and St. John's are semi-marine influenced. Toronto and Windsor are somewhere between the East Coast and Prairies. Windsor and Halifax are roughly tied in winter because Windsor is farther south but Halifax has more marine influence. Boston is at the same latitude as Windsor, but on the coast, so it is a couple of degrees warmer. This roughly explains what you get across the country temperature-wise.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Hali87

I literally shudder at the thought of anything past -10, so I think Sask would take some getting used to (the coldest place I've ever been was Tremblant and I think lows were around -30 while I was there).

One of the things that makes me a bit skeptical about the ideal dry -10 climate, actual life experiences in frigid places aside, is that cities like Halifax get these conditions sometimes and people tend to gripe about them. Similarly the +6 and dreary days that people tend to say are so terrible on here are some of the days that people really like come January. I've never heard anybody in Halifax comment that they'd like to return to -10 degrees after a cold snap. Maybe part of it is that Halifax gets a decent number of non-frigid sunny days in winter; you rarely get that feeling of "I haven't seen the sun in X weeks" that can happen in Vancouver.

Major snowstorms and whatnot get old pretty quickly but, on average, those are fairly rare events. Consequently they have a lower impact on day-to-day activities than people tend to think. As I like to point out, downtown Halifax gets 10 cm or greater snowstorms less than 5 days a year on average (4.8 days at Halifax Citadel). In December, a given day is more likely to hit 10 degrees Celsius than it is to have a snowfall of 5 cm.

[Metro-One]

But there are also locations that go against that trend as well.

For example the southern interior valleys of BC.

They have relatively stable warm / hot summers akin to a mid latitude continental location, but the winters are actually milder than many locations in Nova Scotia (especially the south Okanagan and Fraser Canyon) thanks to a slight marine influence (and moderating temps from the lakes as well).

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

But there are also locations that go against that trend as well.

For example the southern interior valleys of BC.

They have relatively stable warm / hot summers akin to a mid latitude continental location, but the winters are actually milder than many locations in Nova Scotia (especially the south Okanagan and Fraser Canyon) thanks to a slight marine influence (and moderating temps from the lakes as well).

Yes, mountains/elevation would be my third factor if I had to pick one. In the overall scheme of Canada this is more limited in its impact than latitude and marine influence though.

Calgary has cold nights too because of its elevation.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by someone123

Yes, mountains/elevation would be my third factor if I had to pick one. In the overall scheme of Canada this is more limited in its impact than latitude and marine influence though.

Calgary has cold nights too because of its elevation.

Given the extreme topography, extreme marine influence, and the fact that BC has 7 major climate zones (the second most diverse provinces is Ontario with 4) BC is the hardest province to lump into a general Canadian narrative for climate IMO.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by someone123

One of the things that makes me a bit skeptical about the ideal dry -10 climate, actual life experiences in frigid places aside, is that cities like Halifax get these conditions sometimes and people tend to gripe about them. Similarly the +6 and dreary days that people tend to say are so terrible on here are some of the days that people really like come January. I've never heard anybody in Halifax comment that they'd like to return to -10 degrees after a cold snap. Maybe part of it is that Halifax gets a decent number of non-frigid sunny days in winter; you rarely get that feeling of "I haven't seen the sun in X weeks" that can happen in Vancouver.

I wonder how much time people actually spend outdoors during the winter months in each city; this might have something to do with it as well. -10 is fine if you only spend a minute or two each day walking to or from the car or taking out the trash, and maybe doing winter activities at one's own discretion. I would guess that shoveling/snow clearance is probably the biggest "nuisance" for many.

I don't have a car though, so last year I'd commute 2-3k to school on foot (ideally transit, but the system was pretty much broken last year and I was always late for class when I took the bus) and generally spent about 1-2 hours per day, on average, outside. About 1/4 days the sidewalks wouldn't be covered in foot-deep slush or that very lumpy, slippery ice that only seems to form on sidewalks here. One of the weeks where we got multiple storms I spent over 20 hours shoveling (unpaid). Outdoor winter sports are nothing special here, so most people's experience of "being outside in the winter" is a neutral to very unpleasant one, and a lot of people here don't drive. For people who never actually have to spend time outside unless they want to it doesn't really matter if it hits -30 a couple times a week or whatever.

[SignalHillHiker]

Some great advice if it ever became an option.

http://www.mynewfoundlandcorner.com/myne...told-myself-about-moving-to-newfoundland