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Just checked all the available stats at Weatherspark...while Boston weather seems to be a bit worse than NYC it seems to me that is still beats Toronto year round.
Warmer temperatures arrive earlier and less snowy days. Annual average downfall is the same. Sure, on average Boston has more episodes of heavy snow.
Boston has, on average, longer period year round of weather temperatures staying in the "warm" and comfortable" bands.
There is simply no way around the fact that the ocean makes Boston weather temperatures a bit more temperate even if the eastern seaboard cities have usually colder winters (and much more snow) compared to coastal cities in other areas at similar latitudes.
Not surprisingly Chicago weather is almost identical to Toronto, the only noticeable difference (I wonder why) is that Chicago has more time of the year with temperatures staying in the "warm", and "comfortable" bands.
Finally, a comment about few degrees of temperature difference....at some critical boundary level (for example around freezing) you can definitely feel the difference between as little as 3 or 4 degrees of temperature variation....for example, here in Seattle I can definitely feel the difference between this week temperature so far hovering around 2-3 degrees compared to last week in the -2 average....the cold snap seems to be over.
Boston sometimes gets huge dumps of snow in Nor'Easters that would be virtually unheard of in Toronto.
Toronto is more likely to get small snowfalls of 5-10 cm at a time.
I don't have time to check the stats but I am pretty sure Boston has more snowless days in the winter than Toronto, although both cities do have snow-free periods in winter. Boston's are probably longer and more regular due to more constant temperatures above freezing.
The amount of snow Boston and Toronto gets is not even comparable. Period. You can look at the stats all you like but it's a totally different experience living there day in day out in the winter.
To give you an idea of the amount of snow Boston gets:
- I permanently kept a mid-sized snow shovel in my little Honda sedan (like every good Bostonian) because you never know when you need to dig your car out of a snow blizzard dump - it's all fair game from December to end of February. I brought that same shovel to Toronto when I moved here, but in 3 years I never felt the need to shove out my car no matter how cold the temperature gets.
- Boston gets so much snow half of the city's street parking becomes unusable because of the snow accumulation, so many Bostonians also carry those orange construction cones in their wherever they go so we could "reserve" our sacredly shoved parking spots from people who might steal them otherwise. The struggle is real. Again, never needed to carry orange cones around Toronto.
- Even to this day, I receive regular "Snow Emergency" text messages and emails from Cambridge City Hall due to the regular occurrence of blizzards that could easily bring 1 ft of snow in a matter of hours and bringing a halt to all public transit in the Boston area.
Toronto's so-called snow blizzards don't approach anywhere near that level.
Last edited by bostonkid123; 01-12-2017 at 09:00 AM..
The amount of snow Boston and Toronto gets is not even comparable. Period. You can look at the stats all you like but it's a totally different experience living there day in day out in the winter.
To give you an idea of the amount of snow Boston gets:
- I permanently kept a mid-sized snow shovel in my little Honda sedan (like every good Bostonian) because you never know when you need to dig your car out of a snow blizzard dump - it's all fair game from December to end of February.
- It gets so much snow half of the city's street parking becomes unusable because of the snow compilation, so many Bostonians also carry those orange construction cones in their wherever they go so we could "reserve" our sacredly shoved parking spots from people who might steal them otherwise. The struggle is real.
- Even to this day, I receive "Snow Emergency" text messages and emails from Cambridge City Hall due to the regular occurrence of blizzards that could bring 1 ft of snow in a matter of hours.
Toronto's so-called snow blizzards don't approach anywhere near that level.
For single snowfall totals I definitely agree. Boston even beats Ottawa and Montreal in this respect, or at least comes close to it. Which is incredible.
The amount of snow Boston and Toronto gets is not even comparable. Period. You can look at the stats all you like but it's a totally different experience living there day in day out in the winter.
To give you an idea of the amount of snow Boston gets:
- I permanently kept a mid-sized snow shovel in my little Honda sedan (like every good Bostonian) because you never know when you need to dig your car out of a snow blizzard dump - it's all fair game from December to end of February. I brought that same shovel to Toronto when I moved here, but in 3 years I never felt the need to shove out my car no matter how cold the temperature gets.
- Boston gets so much snow half of the city's street parking becomes unusable because of the snow accumulation, so many Bostonians also carry those orange construction cones in their wherever they go so we could "reserve" our sacredly shoved parking spots from people who might steal them otherwise. The struggle is real. Again, never needed to carry orange cones around Toronto.
- Even to this day, I receive regular "Snow Emergency" text messages and emails from Cambridge City Hall due to the regular occurrence of blizzards that could easily bring 1 ft of snow in a matter of hours and bringing a halt to all public transit in the Boston area.
Toronto's so-called snow blizzards don't approach anywhere near that level.
+1!
Similar to you, I don't have any idea what the statistics say, but my personal experience matches up with yours. Fortunately our home had a deeded parking space in Cambridge, so we avoided much of the battle to find a spot in the evenings.
Also a couple other points. Toronto in the winter has longer day light hours than Boston. This is probably because Boston should be in a different time zone, but that is a topic for another day/forum.
I am a year round runner and have been for many years. The temperatures need to hit an extreme low to keep me inside even with my cold gear. I ran into considerably more of those days I would stay inside in Toronto vs Boston, where those days are pretty scarce. Once again this is not based on anything but my personal experience, so take it for what it's worth.
Finally I notice that Boston gets more sunlight during those day time hours than Toronto in the winter.
With all this said, no one in moving to Toronto, NYC (another city I've lived in) and Boston for the weather. They move there for the economic benefits and the fact that all three are culturally rich, progressive, interesting world class cities.
The amount of snow Boston and Toronto gets is not even comparable. Period. You can look at the stats all you like but it's a totally different experience living there day in day out in the winter.
To give you an idea of the amount of snow Boston gets:
- I permanently kept a mid-sized snow shovel in my little Honda sedan (like every good Bostonian) because you never know when you need to dig your car out of a snow blizzard dump - it's all fair game from December to end of February. I brought that same shovel to Toronto when I moved here, but in 3 years I never felt the need to shove out my car no matter how cold the temperature gets.
- Boston gets so much snow half of the city's street parking becomes unusable because of the snow accumulation, so many Bostonians also carry those orange construction cones in their wherever they go so we could "reserve" our sacredly shoved parking spots from people who might steal them otherwise. The struggle is real. Again, never needed to carry orange cones around Toronto.
- Even to this day, I receive regular "Snow Emergency" text messages and emails from Cambridge City Hall due to the regular occurrence of blizzards that could easily bring 1 ft of snow in a matter of hours and bringing a halt to all public transit in the Boston area.
Toronto's so-called snow blizzards don't approach anywhere near that level.
I never lived in Boston so I can't doubt or question your personal experience. however, what you said can be explained easily.
With statistically similar snow precipitation (I don't think we should question that), Boston simply tends to get large storms on fewer snow days. Toronto on the other than, receives snowfall more evenly -- exactly like what Acajack mentioned earlier. I did some research, it does seem to show Boston's single one way snowfall record (27 inches I think) is a lot larger than Toronto's, and Toronto does have more snowy days.
Which is worse? That's a personal preference. I probably prefer Boston's due to 3 reasons
1) I don't have a car, and I am always selfishly happy when the snow makes big trouble for car drivers. Yes it is bad but I can't help it.
2) it is more fun to watch. I am usually depressed when it snows. But when it is really bad, I become somewhat excited. You may get a work from home day or two.
3) you end up having a lot more snow free days.
Your orange cone example makes me laugh. I should suggest my friends in Boston to do the same.
Just checked all the available stats at Weatherspark...while Boston weather seems to be a bit worse than NYC it seems to me that is still beats Toronto year round.
Warmer temperatures arrive earlier and less snowy days. Annual average downfall is the same. Sure, on average Boston has more episodes of heavy snow.
Boston has, on average, longer period year round of weather temperatures staying in the "warm" and comfortable" bands.
There is simply no way around the fact that the ocean makes Boston weather temperatures a bit more temperate even if the eastern seaboard cities have usually colder winters (and much more snow) compared to coastal cities in other areas at similar latitudes.
Not surprisingly Chicago weather is almost identical to Toronto, the only noticeable difference (I wonder why) is that Chicago has more time of the year with temperatures staying in the "warm", and "comfortable" bands.
Finally, a comment about few degrees of temperature difference....at some critical boundary level (for example around freezing) you can definitely feel the difference between as little as 3 or 4 degrees of temperature variation....for example, here in Seattle I can definitely feel the difference between this week temperature so far hovering around 2-3 degrees compared to last week in the -2 average....the cold snap seems to be over.
the fact that Boston is noticeably warmer than Toronto is not even debatable. Those who don't agree must be from Toronto.
And NYC pretty much belongs to a different and warmer climate zone. Not even comparable. And yes, +3 and -2 makes a huge difference. And it doesn't have to be across the freezing point. Here it was 2 or 3 degrees a few days ago, and then it went up to 7-8. I felt warmer the minute I stepped out of the door in the morning. To say, NYC is not that different from Toronto in the winter since neither is Florida anyway, that's just delusional. As I said, NYC is consistently 5-8 degree warmer, and that's massive difference, sometimes difference between spring and winter, or "whether I can take a walk outside". While nobody goes to Boston for the good weather, it is totally reasonable to consider weather as an important factor between the choices of Toronto and New York.
And the annoying late spring in Toronto always pisses me off. Often times it is 12 or 14 degrees in Chicago or Pittsburgh in April or late March, while in Toronto we are still in all the winter jackets against biting polar wind.
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