Rate the climate -- Toronto, Ontario (snowy, warm, averages, rainfall)

[Stumbler.]

Don't know if this has been done, although there have been northeast US climates rated that are somewhat similar.

This is for the airport, about 20 km from downtown, and which is less influenced by the heat island effect, and the lake moderation effect.

Station Results | Canada's National Climate Archive

The downtown station is quite noticeably warmer, with higher minimums all months of the year (around 3C /5F higher) and maximums that are just a little bit warmer (though up to 1C/0.6F higher in the three winter months), if it makes a difference in your rating.

Station Results | Canada's National Climate Archive

[MrMarbles]

C/C-
A bit on the cold side but could be much worse. Summers look pleasant, almost ideal even, and decent in length.
Winters are too cold and long, though. And 2000 hrs of sunshine is about 400-800 hrs less than I'd like, especially during winter.

Still I think Toronto has the best climate our of the larger Canadian cities.

[ilovemycomputer90]

I only looked at the airport data, but I liked what I saw. IIRC, the downtown area has similar averages to where I currently live. The cloudiness is a plus and I imagine summers are probably slightly better than here.

A

[deneb78]

F ... winters too cold. I lived in Ottawa for a few years which is much worse but visited Toronto often. It's an improvement over Ottawa most definitely but most places in Canada I rate as an F for climate.

[RWood]

Done before I think.

Originally Posted by MrMarbles

C/C-
A bit on the cold side but could be much worse. Summers look pleasant, almost ideal even, and decent in length.
Winters are too cold and long, though. And 2000 hrs of sunshine is about 400-800 hrs less than I'd like, especially during winter.

Still I think Toronto has the best climate out of the larger Canadian cities.

I agree with MrMarbles.

I like Canada, but it is kind of sad that this is some of the best Canada can come up with in terms of weather climate.

Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Quebec City, Saint Hohn, Halifax etc. have even worse weather than Toronto.

I used to think Vancouver and Victoria decisively had the best weather climate in Canada but those places usually don't warm up enough in the summer, and some years just get way too cloudy and wet over there(Especially the year 2010 and how it was so far 2011).

But then again Toronto is not that much sunnier than those places(2,000 annual average sunshine hours in Toronto vs. 1,800 average for Vancouver and Victoria) but the slightly more consistent sunshine that Toronto gets makes a huge difference. Plus, I am pretty sure Vancouver had only 1,300-1,500 sunshine hours last year because it was way below average sunshine last year for that place. This year sadly seems like it might repeat that.

So some years Toronto has the best weather climate in Canada for major cities while other years it is Vancouver and Victoria.

[Stoney63]

C-. Too cold for too long, too cloudy given the temps, too many rain days for a modest rainfall total.

Summer looks nice though. It is certainly nicer overall than some of the climates posted.

I see what you mean about the lake moderation/heat island. That is a big difference.

[AliveandWell]

I give the Toronto area a solid B for its climate. It loses points for the cold January and February months. Summers can be humid from what I understand but when I was there in August 2008 the weather was really, really nice! Overall, a solid climate for a four season place. The winters actually don't last as long as Colorado or some Midwestern US cities. I can't imagine Toronto being as humid as Florida or Texas in the summer. Even Wikipedia says Toronto is mild for a Canadian city.

[dunno what to put here]

B, not snowy enough, winters are cold but I'd prefer slightly colder, summers are bit muggy, but thunderstorms are a plus

[MrMarbles]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

B, not snowy enough, winters are cold but I'd prefer slightly colder, summers are bit muggy, but thunderstorms are a plus

Just curious, have you experienced winters colder and snowier than Toronto's? (BTW Wikipedia stats for Toronto are a bit misleading - most of the area outside of the downtown is colder).