Winter is here and we’re in the thick of frigid weather across Canada. Plunging temperatures and rollicking storms are a recipe for snow—and plenty of it.
December is quite the snowy month in Canada. This is actually the snowiest month of the year for some major cities throughout the country.
Make sure you and your vehicle are prepared for winter weather driving no matter where your travels may take you this season.
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No corner of Canada escapes December’s snows
Whether it’s the streets of downtown Vancouver or the rolling hills of Newfoundland, nobody across Canada is immune from the threat of snow during a typical December.
We’ve got wintry weather coming at us from every direction as the heart of winter gets underway. Pacific lows, clippers, snow squalls off the lakes, and nor’easters can all produce wicked snows when all the right ingredients line up.
Every major city in Canada averages double-digit snowfall accumulations through the month of December.
A typical final month of the year sees about 12 cm of snow in Victoria, B.C., on the low end, while folks in Quebec City are prone to 76 cm of snow during an average December on the high end.
Western snows pick up to end the year
December is, on average, the snowiest month of the year for folks in Vancouver and Victoria.
Each city in southern B.C. averages about a dozen centimetres of snow during a typical December. This tendency for big December snowstorms can—and has!—led to a white Christmas in Vancouver while other cities saw bare ground.
Snowfall totals tend to decrease as you trek toward the other side of the Rockies as extreme cold allows the atmosphere to hold less moisture. This is why parts of the Prairies typically to see their biggest snowfall totals in the spring instead of the winter.
Folks across the Prairies average between 10-20 cm of snow throughout the month of December, with higher totals the farther east you travel. In fact, this is the snowiest month of the year for Regina and Winnipeg.
Great Lakes snow machine in full blast
Ontario has to deal with snow coming at the province from all directions during December.
Frigid air flowing over the still-unfrozen lakes allows the lake-effect snow machine to crank into full blast heading into the beginning of the month.
Depending on overall patterns through the end of autumn, this activity can continue well into December or start to shut down as the lakes finally freeze over.
We’ve also got sprawling stateside storms to contend with on a regular basis around this time of year. If the storm track is far enough south, southern and eastern Ontario can find themselves on the cold, snowy side of major winter storms rolling through the region.
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Toronto averages about 25 cm of snow throughout the month. December is the snowiest month of the year for parts of northern Ontario, including for residents of Moosonee, Timmins, and North Bay.
Folks across eastern Ontario and Quebec tend to see steeper totals through December as they feel the influence of major winter storms moving out of New England.
Ottawa averages just shy of 50 cm of snow during the month of December, with similar totals falling in nearby Montreal. It’s the snowiest month of the year in Quebec City, where a whopping 76 cm of snow can fall in a standard December.
It’s a story of coastal lows across the Atlantic provinces.
A favourable track can bring prolific snows from Halifax to St. John’s on a regular basis through December. Halifax usually picks up 44 cm of snow through December, while St. John’s normally measures about 70 cm of accumulation.