Geography and Climate
If you are planning to live in Canada, you have a lot of choices to make. Canada occupies the northern-most region of North America and shares its southern border with the continental United States and its northwest border with Alaska. It touches three oceans: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. A vast country, Canada is second only to Russia in geographic size, nearly 4 million square miles of mountains in the west, plains in the center and lowlands in the southeast.
The country is divided into ten provinces and three territories. The provinces stretch across Canada from British Columbia on the Pacific Ocean to the Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island on the Atlantic Ocean. The interior provinces are Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. Canada’s sparsely populated Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon territories border the Arctic Ocean.
This expansive country spans six time zones, four of which it shares with the United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. Two additional time zones are found in the Maritime Provinces: Atlantic and Newfoundland. Daylight Savings Time is observed in all provinces except Saskatchewan and is synchronized with its observance in the U.S. A country with six time zones has a wide variety of climates. Winter temperatures fall below the freezing point throughout most of Canada, but the southwestern coast has a relatively mild climate. Within the Arctic Circle, mean temperatures are below freezing for seven months a year.
If you have your heart set to live in Canada on the West coast, Vancouver, on the Pacific Ocean, is best known for its year-round mild, wet weather. Snow is rare, but possible in the winter. Summer highs usually are in the 70s F and winter highs are typically in the 40s F. Lows below freezing are infrequent. Montreal and Toronto are more like northern cities in the United States with four distinct seasons. Montreal’s weather is often the colder of the two, mainly because of the wind chill. Snow usually begins in November and continues through March. Toronto’s weather is considered to be milder in comparison to most Canadian cities because of its location on Lake Ontario. Its snowfall begins in December and continues through March. Spring in both cities is short and rainy, the summers hot and humid and fall is mild.
Canada’s large land mass is also no stranger to natural disasters. Hurricanes, tsunamis, and tornadoes all have made their mark on the country. Earthquakes mostly occur on Canada’s West Coast, but significant earthquakes also have damaged the St. Lawrence and Ottawa River valleys. Canada also ranks second in the world in tornado frequency with an average of 80 per year.