As the world’s second-largest country (after Russia, and just ahead of China), Canada stretches across more than 40 degrees of latitude from north to south, and almost 90 degrees of longitude from west to east. And although almost 40% of Canada lies north of the Arctic circle, its southernmost point protrudes well into continental USA. So it is hardly surprising that Canada’s climate is one of the most varied on the planet.
Away from the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, much of the country has a typically continental climate, with very cold winters and hot (sometimes very hot) summers. The capital, Ottawa, in the south-east of the country, experiences quite severe winters and warm, sunny summers, with shorter spells of milder weather in the spring and autumn.
British Columbia, on the west coast, has far fewer extremes: temperatures in Vancouver typically fall to just above freezing in winter, and rise to the mid-20Cs in summer; not all that different from much of the UK. On the east coast, St John’s, in Newfoundland, is considerably colder in winter and cooler in summer, despite being slightly further south than Vancouver, on the same latitude as Nantes in France.
In the far north, Arctic Bay, in the Northwest Territories, has a typically polar climate: temperatures are well below freezing for eight months of the year, and only a few degrees above during the brief summer.
