Whenever I am back in Scandinavia I am struck by how dim it always is. Eternal dusk.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2006/4/the-sourc...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-simulations-qu...
See, for example, the latest hit show - Game of Thrones which shows a very cold, hardy North and a warm, indolent South. Now I know these specific books that the show is based on derive from the Wars of the Roses -- but have you ever a fantasy writer who put people on the Southern hemisphere of their planet and made the North warm?
It's still interesting to think about it but don't try to imply that it's not actually cold, bitter and rough sledding here because we're "south" of London.
Because it's 8C in London right now.
Roughly the same distance further north from London and you arrive at Uppsala (north of Stockholm), and St Petersburg.
Toronto is on roughly the same latitude as Cannes, Nice, Toulouse and Monaco -- the Côte d'Azur / French Riviera.
Edmonton, Alberta is between Manchester and Leeds in England, and close to the latitude of Hamburg.
If you really want to bend your noodle, consider that Los Angeles is at the same latitude as Rabat, Morocco and Miami is at the same latitude as Luxor, Egypt.
Rain or not, at least we don't freeze our asses (so bad) over here :D
I once had a coworker from Atlanta at our office in Toronto. Overheard him on the phone talking to his wife, gobsmacked by the cold, which he said "it's just so far north!" and yet that's not the reason -- we're no further north than northern California. He happened to be here during a cold front that came out of northern Ontario. It's a classic continental climate; summer heat here is as intense as that of many southern US states.
The climate on the north side of Lake Ontario is actually milder than on the other side due to lake effect and weather patterns. Just got back from a trip to the Finger Lakes; our wines in the Niagara region are noticeably riper than those from down there.
Actually, I think the climate on the south side of Lake Ontario is a bit warmer and wetter (thus the lake effect snow). The cold air is moderated a bit as it crosses over the lakes, but it also picks up all that moisture. In fact, I think the windward side of all the Great Lakes are similar and might be in different climate zones vs the leeward side of the lakes. I know in Western Michigan for example there is a bit of a fruit belt because of this.
As someone who grew up outside Buffalo and lives in NC now, this is a big NO.
There are cold streaks (or polar vortexes or whatever the weather people want to call them now) in Atlanta and heat waves in Buffalo and these might cause temperatures to seem similar for a few days per year, but it is NOT the same.
The difference is that these cold streaks last for a couple days in Atlanta and for months in Buffalo, and vice versa for heat waves. Temperatures in the 20s (Fahrenheit, sorry) with dips lower are common for Buffalo all winter, but happen only for a few days at a time (and maybe once per winter) in Atlanta.
And same with the high temps -- temps in the 90s are expected from July thru the end of September in Atlanta, but its only a few days in Buffalo that are that way. Last summer here in Durham, NC, we set a record for days above 90 in a row that was in the high 20s, if not 30s (as in 20 or 30 days in a row). I very clearly remember that my second summer down here didn't even have nightly lows in the 80s. That just doesn't happen up North.
PS: Please forgive me for substituting Buffalo weather for Toronto. It's about the same, but I wanted to accurately represent my anecdotal experiences.
PPS: This should not distract from the fact that weather in Ontario is very similar to weather in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and maybe better than Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, etc.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to compare latitudes of different areas of the world (I know, you did say 'fun fact', I'm referring more to the article). In CA we have a Mediterranean climate that lets me run around in t-shirts and shorts in the middle of winter. North of Cleveland (Pelee)? Not so much. I lived just off the Canadian border over in that area once. Once.
Being on the Pacific coast it's a much milder climate than the US East Coast. Being right to Seattle it's basically the same climate.
What I initially found more confusing were climate patterns, thanks to the coastal effects on the west coast.
Gotta love geography!
The second northernmost French community is Dunkirk, France...
I had no idea. I'm kind of ashamed I didn't know that being from the same province.
Cool photo here: http://images.lpcdn.ca/924x615/201111/05/408611-selon-consul...
- If you start in downtown Detroit and go south, you end up in Canada.
- 13.7M Canadians (1/3 of the population) live in Ontario. Nearly all of these are south of Minneapolis/St. Paul (home to 3.3M Americans).
- 10M more Canadians live further north in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward. Nearly all of these are south of Seattle/Tacoma (home to 3.6M Americans).
The only major Canadian cities that are strictly north of the contiguous U.S. are Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg. And going back to Europe, all of these are strictly south of Scandinavia.
Vancouver rarely receives any snow, and is very similar to Seattle (there only 2 hours apart).
I was in Toronto last week and the temperature was in the 50s. The East coast of the US has had a colder and harsher winter than most of Canada. With that said last year in February while I was also visiting Toronto, the temperate reached -31.
https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Canadians-live-with...
... says the guy who used to bicycle to university in -37C (-45 with wind chill!)
Fun fact: the plastic buckles on knapsacks will shatter like glass in -45 weather. Try biking to school while holding a knapsack in one hand. On snow and ice.
I'm smarter now.
It's when something goes wrong when you realize just how bad an idea biking in -35C weather. Being dressed for exercise in -35C weather means that you're severely underdressed for delicate bike repairs at the side of the road, and you can get dangerously cold very quickly.
- someone else who is also smarter now.
This is pretty silly. I just did some measurements in Google maps and not a single point in Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Rhode Island is even close to 100 miles from the Canadian border.
You might want to check that.
Please examine the image very closely; it appears to be based on the border. Note Lake Superior and positions near lake Erie. https://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-073611f762cf3ef329ee65...
About 45 pixels to border, which is down the middle of the lake.
Ontario in total has nearly 40% of the population, and most of that is pretty far south relative to much of the rest of the country.
As I was reading it, I looked at the map, and concluded that a bunch of the population was likely in the Toronto area which juts well below the mean longitude of Canada's southern border.
For example, in BC the population centers are on the southern border (thanks to a) the Fraser river, and b) politics). But in Alberta they really are not. Nor Saskatchewan. Manitoba sort of is, by geography. So if you were to do this analysis on western Canada, it wouldn't be nearly as clear cut.
Most of "the south" of Canada doesn't have much similarity with south western Ontario, for that matter.
According to the 2011 Canadian Census, more than 23 million people, almost 70 percent of the population, live in urban areas. Ninety percent of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the U.S. border. This means that the overwhelming majority of the Canadian population is easily reachable through traditional distribution routes.
On the other hand, the summer is warmer in Toronto than in London.
Really, though, most Canadians live either almost on the border or by the oceans. The weather there is about the same as in northern US.
The weather in Alaska (at least Anchorage) is not that bad, either - a decent jacket would easily get you through the winter.
The poor pilgrims thought Massachusetts' winter would be warm or warmer then London's and not to far off of Virginia's.
The temperature of the Gulf Stream and its effect on the UK and Western Europe means that while London is 1000k north
London UK March Avg
in C High 12 Low 5
in F High 53 Low 40
London, Ontario March Avg
in C High 4 Low -5
in F High 40 Low 24
Edit copy and pasted F wrong cities
Try asking people which they think is bigger, Greenland or Brazil. Brazil is of course much, much bigger but projections can be deceiving if you've only looked at flat maps.
Draw a shape around SA in Google's MyMaps, and then drag that shape up to Alaska. The shape grows about 3x bigger.
For those Americans who do live in the northernmost tier of US states, Canada's climate is more comparable to their homes. But most Americans also think people in those states are living in the Arctic north.
I have the suspicion that our inherent bias for linear thinking is the culprit here.
Some things can't ever be grasped intuitively and as long as education doesn't at least catch up with our propensity towards boundless optimism our and many more species are essentially doomed.
That said, it needs both for our children to be able to survive - boundless optimism and objective thinking.
As much as I am a kid of the 80s I don't see capitalism - with all its super exciting promises - being much else than an ever accelerating system to even more short-term thinking and conscious/subconscious ignorance at this point.
Yes, it might be less comfortable but we need to change now - each one of us - to save what we have inherited.
Talk with people, teach them, be nice and understanding but tell them that it's all in their hands - even if that's a scary thought!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experim...
Even though I'm not a fan of it, there is a reason for the old ops adage of "never touch a running system".
Complexity is hard (i.e. global climate) and even if life on earth is essentially anti-fragile that might not include our own cohort.
Also, I just might have pulled a human and have been subconsciously "cross-posting" as this super depressing article on "Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply" is trending on HN right now as well:
Note the population density in relation to bodies of water. It has less to do with borders than you seem to think.
