Which capital do you think is snowier overall? (climate, snowfall, warm)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I find it odd that Ottawa gets the same or even slightly more precip in winter considering that it's inland nowhere near a large body of water like Helsinki plus it's colder which means the air would hold less moisture in the first place...
Ottawa gets more that double the snowfall Helsinki gets. Helsinki gets around 80-100 cm a winter. Though Helsinki sees snow quite frequently, a normal snowfall is light and accumulates just a few cm at a time. To get lake-effect snow it must be a strong cold S or SE system, and those are not very common. This time of the year, like last week, lake-effect snow didn't happen, as it was so moist and the soil not cold enough. So the Baltic warmed up the air so that it fell as sleet or rain without accumulating, while turning to snow only some 70 km inland. In Ottawa, this would've fell as snow.
The Gulf of Finland is only 80 km across and quite shallow, so by late January it starts to freeze over, eliminating the lake-effect. To add, February and March both get on average 37 mm of precipitation (including snow), so it's rather dry in Helsinki then. In Ottawa, it snows quite heavily these months.
Helsinki is dominated by westerlies, and from that direction the air masses are often warm. As the 500hPa and 850hPa are around freezing or above, it turns to rain, especially in December. Cold upper air falls down from the Arctic, and that seldom bring heavy snow.
Ottawa gets more that double the snowfall Helsinki gets. Helsinki gets around 80-100 cm a winter. Though Helsinki sees snow quite frequently, a normal snowfall is light and accumulates just a few cm at a time. To get lake-effect snow it must be a strong cold S or SE system, and those are not very common. This time of the year, like last week, lake-effect snow didn't happen, as it was so moist and the soil not cold enough. So the Baltic warmed up the air so that it fell as sleet or rain without accumulating, while turning to snow only some 70 km inland. In Ottawa, this would've fell as snow.
The Gulf of Finland is only 80 km across and quite shallow, so by late January it starts to freeze over, eliminating the lake-effect. To add, February and March both get on average 37 mm of precipitation (including snow), so it's rather dry in Helsinki then. In Ottawa, it snows quite heavily these months.
Helsinki is dominated by westerlies, and from that direction the air masses are often warm. As the 500hPa and 850hPa are around freezing or above, it turns to rain, especially in December. Cold upper air falls down from the Arctic, and that seldom bring heavy snow.
Helsinki has been getting a lot of snow in the recent years:
That's all maximum snow depth in cm ^, the ones I left blank I haven't filled out yet. I checked Canadian Climate data for Ottawa and I didn't see much of a difference in the maximum snow lying on the ground in each city...
But for the sake of snowfall and not snow depth, I chose Ottawa.
It is because of the Labrador Low that generally affects New England and Eastern Canada.
Anyways, Ottawa for much greater snow totals.
This doesn't make any sense since weather systems almost never go east to west but west to east and in addition Labrador is more than 1000km distant from Ottawa so the coastal influence would be zero.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
