The Climate Regions of Canada
Information – Climate Regions:
Arctic
- The Arctic region has a very harsh climate with very short cool summers; while the most northerly locations experience an extremely cold winter that lasts as long as ten months.
- It is basically a cold desert; receiving less than 35-50 cm of precipitation each year.
- Precipitation is low because the Arctic Ocean and other bodies of water are frozen for most of the year; and there is very little evaporation.
- Coastal Arctic climates are moderated by oceanic influences, having generally warmer temperatures and heavier precipitation than the colder and drier interior areas.
- This region includes most of Nunavut as well as northern parts of the Northwest Territories and Quebec.
Pacific Maritime
- The Pacific Maritime region lies along British Columbia's west coast and its border with the Yukon Territory on the way to Alaska.
- Pacific Ocean provides a moderating effect to this maritime climate – keeping it mild in winter (above freezing) and cool in summer.
- Relief precipitation along the coast is very high; especially in winter when the polar front jet stream moves southward allowing moist Pacific winds to reach this area.
- Many people find this moderate climate attractive, and move to the west coast to escape the harsh winters of the Canadian interior.
Cordilleran
- The climate found in this area varies greatly because of the elevation of Rocky Mountains and insulated valleys. Coastal temperatures tend to be warmer than those inland; and northern climates are cooler than southern climates. Winters can last up to 8 months in the northern part of the region.
- Locations only a few kilometres apart may have very different temperatures and precipitation patterns.
- West facing windward slopes receive a great deal of relief precipitation while leeward slopes and interior valleys are dry because of rain shadow conditions.
- Areas with lower elevations are milder than those with higher elevations.
- This region includes almost all of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory as well as a small portion of southwestern Alberta.
Taiga
- This region forms a belt from Labrador across northern Quebec, Ontario, and the Prairies to the Northwest Territories.
- Long severe cold winters [up to six months with mean temperatures below freezing] and short cool/warm summers (50 to 100 frost-free days).
- There is a wide temperature range between the lows of winter and highs of summer.
- Precipitation occurs mainly in the summer from convectional precipitation.
- A small amount of winter precipitation is the result of cyclonic storms.
Boreal
- This region forms a continuous belt from Newfoundland & Labrador; through central Quebec and Ontario; across the prairies; and west to the Rocky Mountains.
- Continental climate: winters are cold and summers are warm.
- Throughout the year, precipitation results from cyclonic (frontal) storms. In the summer, convectional precipitation also occurs when the land mass heats up.
Prairie
- Flat land in Canada's interior: the southern regions of the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
- Continental climate with a wide annual temperature range – winters are very cold and summers are very hot.
- In winter, cold dry polar air blankets the land; and in summer, the air is warm and dry.
- It is quite dry in this region because it is in the rain shadow of the western Cordilleran.
- Cyclonic storms bring moisture throughout the year but most of the rainfall occurs in the spring and summer from convectional precipitation; very low precipitation in winter.
Southeastern
- Moderately cold winters and warm summers.
- This area has both continental and maritime characteristics although most of the region has a continental climate with a wide range of temperatures.
- Maritime climate conditions are evident in areas near the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.
- Frontal [or cyclonic] precipitation occurs all year in the Southeastern climate region.
- The prevailing winds bring storms from the west; and storms from the south move up from the Gulf of Mexico.
- The slight summer maximum in rainfall is due to convectional precipitation.
- This region includes Ontario and Quebec also parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. (Home to Canada's major urban centres.)
Atlantic Maritime
- The winters are neither as cold, nor the summers as hot, as continental locations because the Atlantic Ocean moderates the temperatures.
- This includes New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and southeastern Newfoundland.
- The Atlantic Ocean and its associated currents moderate climate in this region to create a cool and humid maritime climate.
- The prevailing westerlies [help to] bring cyclonic storms throughout the year.
- Some parts of this region receive as much precipitation as parts of the Pacific Maritime climate region.
