Weather report

It’s official: according to today’s paper, Victoria and Nanaimo (both on Vancouver Island) “are at the top of the heap in the only weather category that counts — most comfortable climate” — they’re tied in first place. This from a new Environment Canada analysis “developed from 30 years of weather data for the country’s 100 largest cities.” The study looked at 72 weather categories, used data from as far back as 1840, and considered “more than 200 million weather observations originating from 7,000 different sites.” Victoria and Nanaimo have the best combination of 23 weather categories “conducive to ‘comfortable’ weather”: mild winters, plentiful sunshine, low humidity and little fog. “Victoria stands alone as having the least amount of snow.” Gander, Newfoundland has the most. In fact, Newfoundland cities (only locales in excess of pop.5,000 were included, otherwise Iqaluit, Nunavut would have won) have the “toughest” weather. Well, “Newfies”… what can one say? They have for so long been the butt of jokes, the “challenged” cousins of New Englanders, so to speak. Blame it on the weather, perhaps? More details on the Environment Canada website.