Which climate has a higher chance of maintaining a snowpack continuously over the 3 winter months? (snowfalls, ice)

[deneb78]

Which city is more likely to maintain a continuous snowpack over the 3 winter months?

Toronto

Toronto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or

Reykjavik

Reykjavík - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ben86]

I would imagine Reykjavik has more snow lying days due to low sunshine and lack of mild (5C+) weather for a longer period, though it does have the stronger winds against it. Presumably snowfalls there are quite regular to top up any melting. I would also imagine Reykjavik varies quite a bit between the coast and a couple of miles inland.

[theunbrainwashed]

That's a very good question. I would have picked the obvious choice of Reykjavik, too, but we could be wrong since Reykjavik is peculiar in terms of climate

[Mac15]

Reykjavik obviously. It can snow there in June.

[ben86]

I don't know how Toronto compares, but over here a mere 5-10cm of snow can persist for a week or more in Icelandic-style winter conditions (2C/-2C and next to no sunshine of any significant strength). If we kept getting those conditions for a whole winter plus a 5cm top-up two or three times a week then the snow-lying days would really start to rack up.

[tärnajokk]

I'd say Reykjavik, too, but I actually think that it's pretty unlikely for both locations to experience a snow cover throughout 3 full months. Don't know, if that happened in the past, though... but it would surprise me....

[Ariete]

Toronto, most def.

The lows are consistently below freezing, and there can be 20 ice days a month.

Reykjavik barely even have ice days, and even nights can be well above freezing for weeks. The amount of rainfall is huge.

Look at January 2010 in both cities:

Meteociel - Climatologie mensuelle de Toronto Pearson Int'L. Ont. ( Canada )
Meteociel - Climatologie mensuelle de Reykjavik ( Iceland )

Or 2009, or 2008 or 2007...

[Crunch41]

Looks like toronto almost had it the winter of 1977-1978, snow on the ground from December 6 until March 16th. There was only a trace on the ground December 25th. Have only checked a few winters.


Using a minimum of 10cm, the snow lasted Dec 6-19 and Jan 18 to March 13.

If a trace counts, there was snow on the ground from December 6, 1981 to April 11, 1982. Though a trace is hardly a snowpack.

Source:
http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/climateData/dailydata_e.html?StationID=5097&timeframe=2&cmdB1= Go&Month=6&Year=2013&cmdB1=Go

I'd say toronto as well.

[deneb78]

It might be useful to compare Toronto's coldest winter with Reykjavik's and see which one had the most number of ice days in a year. I'd be interested to see that

[Bottletree]

I'd rather live in Toronto though, you?