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It is cold but a high quality winter coat and good warm boots go a long way. It also helps to remember that big world cities such as Harbin, Ulan Bator, and Moscow are colder.
I've lived in Toronto 33 years, and anyone who has moved here in the last ten years who thinks the winter here is awful should have seen what it was like in the 80's and 90's - much more snow, much colder, much longer. Winters nowadays are really only two months - January and February. While December and March can be cold, they can also be well above zero most of the time, and we've had a few March months recently where temps went up to the high teens. We used to get snow in April, and now we have days in April in the twenties. The first snowfall is typically a month later than it used to be, and thaws are much warmer and more common than usual.
IMO, Toronto's weather isn't much worse than NYC or Boston, and probably the best in Canada overall. Vancouver may have a higher average temp, but I don't like living more than half my year in the rain and gloominess endemic to the Lower Mainland. During winter I'll take -5 and sunny over +5 and rainy any day.
My biggest complaint about Toronto's weather is the increasingly hot summers. Nowadays, summers in TO are one prolonged heat wave. This keeps me in the house more than the cold. You can layer in the winter, but there's only so much clothes you can take off in the summer.
I am laughing at those who think Toronto's summer is humid and hot. Have you guys ever been outside Canada at all???
Compared to the rest of the world, Toronto's summer (I mean July and August) is mild. Every summer, the media starts to make a big fuss over "heat wave" when it is only 33C for like 2 or 3 days. You are kidding? 33C is a "heat wave"? Look around, there are so many cities than can stay above 35C for over 30 days with high humidity, and they don't make a big deal out of it.
And don't get me to the "it is the humidity" story. It is laughable. Do we really think summer in Toronto is humid? Try Shanghai, Soeul, or Tokyo, or Southeast Asia, or Southern US. I remember last summer there was this one day the temperature rose to 38C with high humidity and the media acts like that's the end of the world. Guess what, I used to spend at least 20 days under that temperature every summer for 10+ years, so do millions of people elsewhere.
As to Toronto's weather in general, after living here for several years, I find it is not half bad as I thought or people elsewhere make it out to be. Mid April to November are generally comfortable, and that's a pretty long time (except maybe 5 really hot days in the middle of summer, which is not too bad to start with).
From my experience, it doesn't really get unbreably cold until mid Dec, before that max temperature still rises to positive numbers. Snow accumulation doesn't occur until then too. Jan/Feb have many bad days, but guess what, so do the rest of the world on the northern hemisphere except a few areas with god-blessed weather (San Diego). We have some really cold days where the high never exceedes -5 (like today) but also some days it gets to 5 or even 10C.
What troubles me is March and April (at least early-mid April). This is when it gets depressing because you start to feel the winter is too long, especially the rest of the world is already in spring. To see snow or ice in March is sad and depressing. The need to wear gloves in April is cruel. I can deal with biting coldness in Jan/Feb, but I absolutely hate icy March or April (which doesn't happen too often).
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In general, not many cities have San Diego like perfect weather. On this continent:
New York is consistently 5-10C warmer than us and has much less snow. It is also hotter in the summer. If one likes four distinct seasons, but not the extreme temperature, it is the perfect place to be. DC/Philly are similar but slightly warmer but even hotter summers.
Boston is similar to Toronto (a tad warmer due to promiximity to the ocean), but is more prone to storms.
Chicago is somewhat warmer than Toronto, and much less snow. In general slightly better weather but not by much.
Montreal/Ottawa are cold and snowy. Would never want to live there just because of the weather.
Vancouver is mild but as someone said mild but rainy/grey 5-6 months in the winter is not exactly "better". I wouldn't trade for it.
Southern states in the US such as TX, AZ and FL have warm winter but crazy hot and long summers. They are simply similar to Toronto in terms of desirability. Bad summers isn't better than bad winters.
Even Los Angeles, a city I am familiar with, doesn't have anything close to perfect weather. It is getting hotter and hotter in the summer. Nowadays, it is not unusual for it to reach 35+ in July and August with scorching sun for a few weeks. Didn't like it. It reaches 28C in January, which is simply too much for the winter.
I think in determining whether a city has good weather, you not only have to consider how many cold days it has (for me personally, anything lower than -10C is unbearable, above -5 is OK), but also factor in how many hot days (33C degrees I would say).
under -10C --- unbearable
between -10C and 0 --- cold but OK
0-10 -- not bad, even comfortable if with sunshine
10 - 32 --- all good days depending on your preference
33+ -- too hot and uncomfortable
37+ (above human body temperature) -- unbearable, even worse than -10C.
This is a score ranking Mercer gives to various big cities in the world in terms of "thermal comfort" in general. The higher the score, the better weather the city has. Toronto is definitely below average, but not too far from New York, London, Berlin and Seoul which are not known for bad weather.
Sao Paulo - 27
Los Angeles -26
Sydney -25
Mexico City -24
Johannesberg - 23
Buenos Aires - 21
San Fran -20
Istanbul - 19
Paris - 17
Tokyo - 17
London - 11
New York -10
Berlin -9
Soeul -8 Toronto - 7
Chicago - 7
Stockholm - 5
Shanghai -4
Beijing - 3
Abu Dhabi - 3
Moscow - 1
Note: Measure of the average deviation from optimal room temperature (72 degrees Fahrenheit) in a city. January and July heat indices were calculated for each city using an online tool that integrates average temperature and average morning relative humidity during each month. A final thermal comfort score was derived by first taking the difference between a city’s heat index for each month and optimal room temperature and then averaging the absolute values of these differences.
I've lived in Toronto 33 years, and anyone who has moved here in the last ten years who thinks the winter here is awful should have seen what it was like in the 80's and 90's - much more snow, much colder, much longer. Winters nowadays are really only two months - January and February. While December and March can be cold, they can also be well above zero most of the time, and we've had a few March months recently where temps went up to the high teens. We used to get snow in April, and now we have days in April in the twenties. The first snowfall is typically a month later than it used to be, and thaws are much warmer and more common than usual.
Did a fact check.
I don't think Toronto's weather has changed that much, according to the stats. The March average for 1971-2000 is 1.3C to 4.6C so really March has always been typically above freezing.
December in the late 1900s also typically hovered around the zero mark. I think snow and cold just makes a greater impression upon children.
Average April snow from 1971-2000 was less than 3", so I don't think too much has changed on that front either. Toronto's winter probably just has never been as cold as people remember it to be.
I don't think Toronto's weather has changed that much, according to the stats. The March average for 1971-2000 is 1.3C to 4.6C so really March has always been typically above freezing.
December in the late 1900s also typically hovered around the zero mark. I think snow and cold just makes a greater impression upon children.
Average April snow from 1971-2000 was less than 3", so I don't think too much has changed on that front either. Toronto's winter probably just has never been as cold as people remember it to be.
Your information only goes up to the year 2000. I was pretty clear in my post that winters were much colder in the 80's and 90's. Your numbers go no further than the 90's. I think if you were to get the data for the last 10 years, you would see a pretty large increase in temperature.
I am laughing at those who think Toronto's summer is humid and hot. Have you guys ever been outside Canada at all???
Compared to the rest of the world, Toronto's summer (I mean July and August) is mild. Every summer, the media starts to make a big fuss over "heat wave" when it is only 33C for like 2 or 3 days. You are kidding? 33C is a "heat wave"? Look around, there are so many cities than can stay above 35C for over 30 days with high humidity, and they don't make a big deal out of it.
And don't get me to the "it is the humidity" story. It is laughable. Do we really think summer in Toronto is humid? Try Shanghai, Soeul, or Tokyo, or Southeast Asia, or Southern US. I remember last summer there was this one day the temperature rose to 38C with high humidity and the media acts like that's the end of the world. Guess what, I used to spend at least 20 days under that temperature every summer for 10+ years, so do millions of people elsewhere.
I am so sick of hearing people say "Oh, it's so much hotter over there. It's so much colder over there."
Just what does that have to do with us? We never live in those places so we aren't used to those temperatures.
With you and Toronto it's just one big unnessary dick measuring contest. "Your buildings are laughable compared to other cities." "Your temperature is nothing compared to other cities."
This is who we are. This is what were used to.
The fact that it's hotter in the Sahara Desert has no bearing on the fact that when I walk outside in July, I'm sweating my *******s off within 2 minutes and I can barely see the CN Tower from downtown because of all the smog.
The fact that it's hotter in the Sahara Desert has no bearing on the fact that when I walk outside in July, I'm sweating my *******s off within 2 minutes and I can barely see the CN Tower from downtown because of all the smog.
I laugh when people talk about "smog" in Toronto too. What smog? The air can't be better for a large city.
Not many people live in the Sahara Desert, so the comparison is meaningless; but tens of millions of people live in cities much hotter than Toronto. You may be sick of hearing it, but Toronto July/August is simply nothing but comfortable.
To say a few days of 32 degrees is a hot summer is simply laughable.
I laugh when people talk about "smog" in Toronto too. What smog? The air can't be better for a large city.
Not many people live in the Sahara Desert, so the comparison is meaningless; but tens of millions of people live in cities much hotter than Toronto. You may be sick of hearing it, but Toronto July/August is simply nothing but comfortable.
To say a few days of 32 degrees is a hot summer is simply laughable.
Sure, the smog is fine compared to Beijing, but when I can't even see the CN Tower from Dufferin and Davenport on a "clear" day, I wouldn't say "the air cant be better."
Seems to me you just like to disagree with people and make yourself sound smart and worldly, Botticelli. But really, you just come off as being annoying and contrary. You have your opinion - let other people have theirs.
I don't care if tens of million of people live in hotter cities. I live here, so the weather in Mumbai means nothing to me. When you go from below zero for months of the year to 32*C + @ 80% - 100% humidity it's not an easy adjustment. I teach ESL and have lots of students from the tropics, and during the summer they often comment on the uncomfortable heat and humidity. I also visit South Florida and Puerto Rico in the summer months every few years, and I lived in southern Mexico for a year so I know what hot is, and Toronto summers are hot. Especially as global temps have risen over the last decade. Something like 9 of the last 10 years are the 9 hottest years on record for Toronto. And with the humidity, we often get well above 32*C regularly.
Then again, I have friends and relatives who love the heat and have no problem with Toronto summers. But some people are more sensitive to the heat, and the combination of high temps and high humidity, plus the rapid transition we have to make between cold winters and hot summers make the summers here uncomfortable for some people. If you find Toronto summers comfortable, great! I'm happy for you. But don't laugh at people who think differently, because it makes you seem like a you-know-what.
Last edited by TOkidd; 02-22-2013 at 08:50 AM..
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