by Cameron Scott

Created on: October 28, 2010

Every part of the Great White North gets cold enough to have snow every winter. Even the warmest Canadian cities still get between forty and sixty centimetres of snow each year. That's just a normal part of being Canadian.

Fortunately, we don't have snow and frost year-round. We have blistering hot summers too, and they even last longer than one day! However, most parts of Canada can expect to dip below freezing after September, and you really shouldn't put plants in the ground until after the Victoria Day weekend (May 24). April frosts are common. August frosts happen everywhere from the prairies to Newfoundland about every ten or so years.

The coldest months of the year in Canada are January and February. Most parts of Canada have snow on the ground by then.

The further north you go, the deeper the winter freeze. Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay latitudes are already getting winter snow in September. Even further north, above the Arctic Circle, the sun disappears below the horizon around November and doesn't rise again until February.

Some parts of Canada are colder than others. Southwestern Ontario is the banana belt of Canada. It still gets tonnes of snow and even snow squalls, which sometimes makes for interesting commutes on the world's largest highway. However, it doesn't usually get much colder than -20 degrees Celsius, and there's often a short thaw near the beginning of January. In Toronto, the coldest overall month ever was January 1994, when it averaged -12.4 degrees Celsius.

Vancouver and Victoria are even balmier. Yes, they still do get snow in winter, but it's usually gone by the next day. Vancouver's average winter low usually doesn't drop below freezing. However, even Vancouver sometimes has temperatures below -15 degrees Celsius.

When it comes to cold, the temperature doesn't always tell the whole story. We also have to figure in windchill. Toronto Pearson International Airport recorded its record cold temperature of -31.3 degrees Celsius on January 10, 1859, which felt like -44.7 degrees in the wind. That's what windchill can do.

The very coldest part of Canada is in the far north. The tiny village of Snag, located just south of Beaver Creek in the Yukon Territory, holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in North America, making it the fourth coldest place in the entire world. On February 3, 1947, thermometers plunged to -63 degrees Celsius. That's cold enough to freeze spilled hot coffee before it hits the ground.

In fact, in January of both 2008 and 2009, the entire region from the Yukon Territory south to Winnipeg suffered through weeks of unrelenting -40 and colder overnight temperature. At the same time, the wind also picked up, sometimes up to 100 kilometres an hour, making the windchill feel like -50 or -60. That's scarf and balaclava weather, because the air is cold enough to freeze your lungs.

By comparison, most of Mars would be downright balmy!

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