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I'm coming from the England, where it don't get that cold, I mean we have snow but not like the ones I've seen in pictures from Toronto.
Wow, so cold, the heating bills must be out the roof, or I guess 2 pairs of socks should do the trick?
I've only ever been to Toronto during the summer, how long does the cold spell last?
It doesn't last long. Only six months or so. Houses are built for the climate. Yes heating is costly, but homes are built to be as efficient as possible.
Believe me when I say you get used to it. You may never like it though.
[...] Houses are built for the climate. Yes heating is costly, but homes are built to be as efficient as possible.
This must be the joke of the day. Canadian (and American) "houses" are the crappiest I've seen. Where are the really efficient windows systems (with Uw factor less than 2.0, uPVC profile of at least 70mm and 5 air chambers) that we see so often in Europe / Germany? Where are the tankless water heaters (what North America has instead is a prehistoric big water barrel for which the energy is spent on, almost on a continuous basis, just to keep the water hot no matter you use it or not - like a car running all night long in your garage, just for you to find it warm when you use it in the morning)? Where are the hydronic heating systems, instead of the crappy "forced air" systems??
Moving to a city with cold winters in December (the start of winter no less lol) when not used to cold winters is not exactly a soft launch lol.. Now would have been a good time to move so you could slowly adapt to gradual temp changes.. Plus seeing the changing of the colours in the Fall is beautiful.. Anyway we don't get 6 months of winter weather. 4 months of winter, 4 months of warm to hot weather and four months os cool to warm weather.
Layers are the key in winter so dress appropriately and take the kids toboganning at riverdale park, they'll have a blast.. Snowball fights and making a snow man are always awesome too.
Yeah I would play outside for hours on end as a kid, building snow forts, tunnels in snowbanks, etc, it's usually not that bad as long as your kids are well dressed with snow pants, winter boots, mitts, etc. You don't have to go to Riverdale park for tobogganing either, just pick the closest ravine of which there are many throughout Toronto.
Also winters can be pretty variable, I would consider -15C uncomfortable and -30C extremely uncomfortable even if reasonably well dressed (hat, scarf, though no snow pants which adults basically only wear for skiing). I guess -10C can be slightly uncomfortable but I wouldn't avoid going outside because of it.
It can also vary a lot from one winter to the next.
Days with minimum temperatures below
(-10C)/(-15C)/(coldest)
It was even worse here in Kitchener-Waterloo just 1.5 hours drive from Downtown Toronto. Toronto had only one day when temperatures dipped below -20C while Kitchener had 24-25 days below -20C with the coldest at -30.7C (the only other time I experienced -30C is when I picked the wrong time to go skiing in Quebec). If you live in Toronto's northern suburbs like Brampton or Newmarket it will probably be colder than Downtown and areas near Lake Ontario.
On the other hand 2011/2012 was really quite mild (last day of "winter" was 25C), 2010/2011 is probably the closest we've had to average recently.
The daily lows only really matter if you walk to work or have to wait at the bus stop in the morning though, usually daytime highs are around 10C milder than the lows, which is probably when the kids will be outside (recess at school, or afternoon at home). So usually mid-day temperatures in Toronto will be between -8C and 8C from mid-December to mid-March. You'll usually get several periods of mild (5-10C, sometimes even warmer) temperatures throughout winter, often accompanied by rain, that will melt the snow.
Mid-December to mid-March is what I consider winter. Late October to mid-December and mid-March to late-April is similar to British winters, so you can get snow, but it's rare and usually melts before long, and mostly it's above freezing, you'll probably want a light jacket or sweater and sometimes gloves but otherwise you're fine. Late September to mid-October and May is usually nice weather, sometimes you might want a sweater but other times you can wear short sleeves and it might even be hot (>25C). June to mid-September is at least as warm as in England, often warmer, daily highs are rarely below 20C, and can reach 35C for a few days, but typically mid-high 20s. Sometimes during hot summers temperatures can be over 30C for 30-40 days total, on cooler summers like this one, just a few days are that hot.
I think the main reasons Torontonians dislike winter are:
-They don't like dressing up
-Don't like having to choose between wearing a hat and messing up their hair
-Shoveling their driveway
-Can sometimes cause traffic jams
-Scraping ice/snow off their car
-Dry skin
-Heating bills and not being able to open their window for fresh air without letting in the cold
-Not being able to enjoy warm weather activities like eating outside, BBQing, soccer (although I played casual soccer in the snow as a kid, it can be interesting...)
But for the vast majority of winter, you can still do outdoor activities if you dress up properly.
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