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Sun is still strong and hot in Canada, especially in Southern Canada where most Canadians live near the U.S. border. Montreal and Toronto have hot summers generally.
It may not be as hot as the southwest and south, but still quite warm.
Umm up North near the artic it is light out all day in summer pretty much and the sun never really sets to where in winter it is dark all day with just a few hours of daylight.
You can get a sunburn in winter which happens when the UV rays bounce and reflect off the snow and a clear day in winter is always way brighter with snow on the ground.
The sun is the same just the earth tilts axis North towards the sun in summer and then south in winter and right now it is winter is Australia and summer in Canada since we are close to the North pole and they are way out by the Antarctic south pole or were the stereotypical penguins live we just have the polar bear one is a bunch of flightless birds and the other one is the largest carnivore man eating apex predator on the planet.
Even in a Canadian winter you have to be carefull about UV damage to your eyes.
Mmhmm. Ever notice skiers wearing tinted goggles or sunglasses for that reason? Just because it's cold doesn't mean you won't burn. If it's exposed and you have pale or fair skin, it'll burn
We regularly get sunburned at the beginning of summer, and get very brown by the middle (Nova Scotia, not far from Cape Cod).
Whether it constitutes "less sun damage" to whatever you are comparing to, I don't know.
Same with me. I'm very easily capable of turning Mexican brown in the summertime, especially when I was a kid when I would be outside all of the time in summer. On the other hand, I lose all of the tan on unexposed parts of my body the rest of the year, leaving me with a farmer's tan the rest of the year with olive skin outer forearms and face, but the rest is as pale as the background of this box I'm typing in, lol
I don't know why so many people have this idea of Canada as a frozen wilderness. A basic understanding of geography and glance at recent climate stats are all one needs to see that Canada is as diverse climate-wise as it is in its ecology and culture.
So, for example, the Golden Horseshoe, where almost a quarter of Canada's population lives, is south of almost a third of the continental United States. Windsor is on the same latitude as Northern California, but has much colder winters and more humid summers. As one sees with Europe, where many nations are considerably further north than the border-area of Canada where most of our population lives, latitude is not as important as air currents, water currents, and the micro-climates these can create. Thus, coastal BC and Alaska have the largest temperate rainforest in the world, and it rarely drops below zero on the Lower Mainland, while Barrie and Collingwood in Southern Ontario are quite a bit further south and have cold, snowy winters. Meanwhile, drive just one hour south of Barrie, and you are in Toronto, which receives considerably less snow than locales only a few miles to the north, and is often a few degrees warmer to boot. Elsewhere, Winnipeg is one of the coldest cities in the country, yet it is quite far south in Canadian terms. When I watch the weather channel in winter, I often notice that Winnipeg is colder than Whitehorse, though Whitehorse is hundreds of miles to the north. Meanwhile, Yellowknife is on roughly the same latitude, but east of Yellowknife, and seems to have far colder winters.
So Canada's climate is very diverse, and practically the entire country enjoys four distinct seasons. Only in the very far north, one sees very short springs and autumns, and a quick transition from fairly warm weather to extremely cold weather.
However, as others have pointed out, weather has little to do with skin damage from the sun. That has far more to do with the angle at which the sun hits a particular area of the globe, and also he culture of a country or region - for example, I imagine that skin cancers and skin damage from UV rays are far more common in South Florida and Southern California compared to, say, New Orleans or Houston. Even though these areas are all sub-tropical, with strong UV levels, particularly in summer, South Florida and Southern California have a beach culture that leads to many residents spending prolonged periods in the sun without sufficient protection against the damage caused by UV rays.
I have no idea what the levels of skin cancer in Canada are, compared tot the US. But I would guess that here, as well as south of the border, areas with lots for sunshine, water to swim in, and a culture of "getting some sun" and spending lots of time in the sun have higher levels of skin damage from UV than areas like the Lower Mainland or Vancouver Island, where it is generally quite overcast during the summer, when the sun's rays are strongest in Canada. As others have also mentioned, winter does not make one immune to the sun's damaging rays. People who spend a lot of time in the snow, skiing, hunting, snowmobiling, etc., often get sunburned on their faces, and occasionally damage their eyes as well.
Just out of curiosity, why are you curious about this topic?
The EPA keeps track of mean UV index numbers for the US on a month to month basis and overlays them on maps, which can be seen here.
There is no data covering the far north, save for the western Yukon, but most areas near the American border are covered enough that a reasonable guess can be made for them.
From flipping between maps, I get the impression that a July day in Toronto is about equivalent to a March day in Arizona. A July day in Toronto is also about equivalent to a July day in Ohio.
I don't know why so many people have this idea of Canada as a frozen wilderness. A basic understanding of geography and glance at recent climate stats are all one needs to see that Canada is as diverse climate-wise as it is in its ecology and culture.
So, for example, the Golden Horseshoe, where almost a quarter of Canada's population lives, is south of almost a third of the continental United States. Windsor is on the same latitude as Northern California, but has much colder winters and more humid summers. As one sees with Europe, where many nations are considerably further north than the border-area of Canada where most of our population lives, latitude is not as important as air currents, water currents, and the micro-climates these can create. Thus, coastal BC and Alaska have the largest temperate rainforest in the world, and it rarely drops below zero on the Lower Mainland, while Barrie and Collingwood in Southern Ontario are quite a bit further south and have cold, snowy winters. Meanwhile, drive just one hour south of Barrie, and you are in Toronto, which receives considerably less snow than locales only a few miles to the north, and is often a few degrees warmer to boot. Elsewhere, Winnipeg is one of the coldest cities in the country, yet it is quite far south in Canadian terms. When I watch the weather channel in winter, I often notice that Winnipeg is colder than Whitehorse, though Whitehorse is hundreds of miles to the north. Meanwhile, Yellowknife is on roughly the same latitude, but east of Yellowknife, and seems to have far colder winters.
So Canada's climate is very diverse, and practically the entire country enjoys four distinct seasons. Only in the very far north, one sees very short springs and autumns, and a quick transition from fairly warm weather to extremely cold weather.
However, as others have pointed out, weather has little to do with skin damage from the sun. That has far more to do with the angle at which the sun hits a particular area of the globe, and also he culture of a country or region - for example, I imagine that skin cancers and skin damage from UV rays are far more common in South Florida and Southern California compared to, say, New Orleans or Houston. Even though these areas are all sub-tropical, with strong UV levels, particularly in summer, South Florida and Southern California have a beach culture that leads to many residents spending prolonged periods in the sun without sufficient protection against the damage caused by UV rays.
I have no idea what the levels of skin cancer in Canada are, compared tot the US. But I would guess that here, as well as south of the border, areas with lots for sunshine, water to swim in, and a culture of "getting some sun" and spending lots of time in the sun have higher levels of skin damage from UV than areas like the Lower Mainland or Vancouver Island, where it is generally quite overcast during the summer, when the sun's rays are strongest in Canada. As others have also mentioned, winter does not make one immune to the sun's damaging rays. People who spend a lot of time in the snow, skiing, hunting, snowmobiling, etc., often get sunburned on their faces, and occasionally damage their eyes as well.
Just out of curiosity, why are you curious about this topic?
Uh, a southern peninsular portion of Canada is below the northern quarter of the US, not third. The rest of Canada’s population centers are well north. A quarter of the US is further south than northern Mexico. What is wrong with you?
Canadians have, as a whole, beautiful skin when compared to Australians. But of course we have the worst sun damaged skin that you can get.
There are some cultural issues. Don’t know about Canada, but in many countries school children eat lunch indoors and even eat hot meals. Here they take a picnic lunch to school and eat it in the playground, which takes ten minutes, and then in primary school have about forty minutes playing outside. Even though they are meant to wear hats they still end up with a lot of sun exposure. That comes back to bite when they are older, often as skin cancer.
When we were in Hawaii on a day trip I could not help myself complimenting a middle aged lady about her beautiful skin. She laughed and said she was a Canadian dermatologist, which explained a lot.
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