Climate
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Toronto's continental climate is moderated by Lake Ontario; its climate is among the mildest in Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. Downtown Toronto sits in a pocket of the humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa) climate zone found at the south-western end of Lake Ontario covering the southern part of the city - including downtown, where the annual average temperature exceeds 9 °C (48 °F). There is a high degree of variability from year to year and sometimes even over a period of days, particularly during the winter months.
Lake Ontario's water temperature varies due to upwelling of colder water or warmer pools of surface water creating very localized thermal contrast; the deeper waters of the lake, far from the shore, remain at a near constant water temperature of 4 °C (39 °F), the effect of which is either cooling or warming (in winter). This creates generally warmer nights through the colder season. When offshore winds occur in summer, they warm as they blow toward the lakeshore in the evening; conversely, the cooling effect by the lake is most pronounced on spring afternoons, which affects Toronto even more than other cities on the Great Lakes as during spring onshore east to southeast winds are predominant, on some days the temperatures can be as much as 10C cooler than areas located far enough away from the Lake Ontario, an effect that wanes by summer when the dominant windflow becomes more southwesterly.
Springs and autumns feature varied weather with alternating periods of dry, sunny weather and rain. These seasons are brief when compared to summer or winter seasons, many days in thse seasons are sunny with pleasant rather than warm or cold temperatures. Nights are generally cool, but frosts are rare. Snow can fall in early spring or late fall but usually melts quickly after contact with the ground. At these times changeable times of the year, temperature contrasts (up to 30 °C (54 °F) in extreme cases) can occur within a short time frame due to rapidly changing air masses that sweep across the continent, Toronto's weather is affected by the relative position of the polar jetstream and storm track, both of which pass over the area with some frequency.
Annual average precipitation is 834 mm (32.83 in).
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Toronto
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“If often he was wrong and at times absurd,
To us he is no more a person
Now but a whole climate of opinion.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Ghosts, we hope, may be always with us—that is, never too far out of the reach of fancy. On the whole, it would seem they adapt themselves well, perhaps better than we do, to changing world conditions—they enlarge their domain, shift their hold on our nerves, and, dispossessed of one habitat, set up house in another. The universal battiness of our century looks like providing them with a propitious climate ...”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)