Warmest Canadian Cities in Winter
For warm winter weather, no major city east of the Rocky Mountains comes close to the balmy climate enjoyed by the three large cities in southwestern British Columbia: Victoria, Vancouver and Abbotsford.
They always fill the top three spots on the lists for mildest winter days and nights, fewest frosty days and fewest nights with chilly temperatures. BC's other large city, Kelowna lands at a distant fourth in winter warmth.
Elsewhere in Canada, the warmest cities for winter weather are in Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. Among these, the Ontario cities of Toronto, Windsor and St. Catharines stand out as having a consistently warmer winter climate than the rest.
Victoria, BC is the unchallenged leader among Canada's large cities for winter heat. It ranks several degrees and days ahead of the others for warm weather. Victoria is the only large Canadian city to not normally drop down to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) during winter.
The tables below list the major Canadian cities that in winter have the highest maximum and minimum temperature averages, the fewest freezing days and the lowest number of really cold nights.
The cities included in these rankings are Canada's largest metropolitan areas. These are the 33 urban regions that had over 100,000 people according to the 2011 census by Statistics Canada. The temperature data are averages of weather measurements made from 1981 to 2010.
Hottest Winter Climates
The mildest winter days are found at these ten cities. They are the only major Canadian cities with an average daily high temperature during winter that's above freezing.
|City||High °F||High °C|
|Victoria, British Columbia||48||8.8|
|Abbotsford, British Columbia||45||7.2|
|Vancouver, British Columbia||45||7.1|
|Kelowna, British Columbia||37||2.6|
|St. Catharines, Ontario||34||1.1|
|Halifax, Nova Scotia||34||1.0|
|Toronto, Ontario||33||0.6||Hamilton, Ontario||33||0.4|
These dozen cities have the warmest winter nights. They all average a low temperature for winter that's above -8 °C. Only three Canadian cities have winter minimums that are mainly above freezing.
|City||Low °F||Low °C|
|Victoria, British Columbia||38||3.5|
|Vancouver, British Columbia||34||1.3|
|Abbotsford, British Columbia||33||0.5|
|Kelowna, British Columbia||26||-3.5|
|St. Catharines, Ontario||21||-6.1|
|Halifax, Nova Scotia||20||-6.7|
|St. John's, Newfoundland||19||-7.2|
Fewest Frozen Days
Many Canadian cities remain below freezing for most of winter. Just these nine cities usually have fewer than 40 days when the thermometer never rises above freezing.
|Victoria, British Columbia||1|
|Vancouver, British Columbia||3|
|Abbotsford, British Columbia||5|
|Kelowna, British Columbia||28|
|St. Catharines, Ontario||38|
|Halifax, Nova Scotia||38|
Fewest Nights with Chilly Temperatures
Just eight Canadian cities typically have no more than 25 nights a winter when the temperature drops to -10 °C.
|Victoria, British Columbia||0|
|Vancouver, British Columbia||1|
|Abbotsford, British Columbia||2|
|Kelowna, British Columbia||16|
|St. Catharines, Ontario||23|
Environment Canada. Meteorological Service of Canada. Canadian Climate Normals. 1981-2010 Climate Normals & Averages.