Let's start with precipitation. On an annual basis, Toronto gets about 30% more precipitation than Victoria - 831 mm in Toronto versus 641 mm in Victoria. If you split that into rain and snow, Toronto gets about 20% more rain than Victoria (741 mm vs. 621 mm) and about 6 times as much snow (122 cm vs. 20 cm).
Besides getting more precipitation, Toronto also differs from Victoria in the seasonal pattern of its precipitation. While Victoria has a very distinct rainy season (late fall and winter) and dry season (late spring and summer), precipitation in Toronto is more or less the same year round. You can see the difference in the chart below. Victoria gets about 50% more precipitation than Toronto in November, December, and January (318 mm vs. 207 mm). Precipitation levels are about the same in both cities during the transitional months of February and March, and again in October. During the six months from April to September, Victoria gets less than one third as much rain as Toronto (137 mm vs. 451 mm). The difference is particularly pronounced during June, July, and August when Victoria gets less than one quarter as much rain as Toronto. One of the big reasons for the much drier summers is the lack of thunderstorms in Victoria: Toronto averages about 28 days annually with thunderstorms compared with about one day in Victoria.
We can also compare the frequency of precipitation. For example, Victoria averages 133 days per year with measurable precipitation versus 145 days in Toronto. The chart below compares the % chance of measurable precipitation on any given day throughout the year. Again, you can see there is much more seasonal variation in Victoria, ranging from 60% chance during November and December to a 10% chance in late July and early August. The likelihood of precipitation has a much smaller seasonal range in Toronto, from about 50% in the winter down to about 30% in late summer. The chance of having a day with measurable rainfall is lower in Victoria from early April until early October. The gap is especially wide from mid-July until mid-August: if you're planning an outdoor event at this time of year it's about three times as likely to get rained out in Toronto compared with Victoria.
As noted earlier, Toronto gets more than 6 times as much snow as Victoria, with an average 122 cm annually in Toronto versus 20 cm in Victoria. Snow also stays on the ground much longer in Toronto, with an average of 68 days each winter with at least 1 cm of snow on the ground compared with 5 days for Victoria. Although on average, Victoria gets much less snow, it has had more really large snowfalls than Toronto. The biggest one-day snowfall in Toronto in the past 100 years was 48 cm in December 1943. In Victoria, there have been three one-day snowfalls that exceeded 50 cm, in February 1916, February 1923, and December 1996.
Victoria is also sunnier than Toronto, with an average 2,203 hours of sunshine annually versus 2,066 hours for Toronto. Victoria averages 315 days per year with at least some measurable sunshine, leaving an average 50 days per year with no sun. Toronto averages 60 days annually with no measurable sunshine. The chart below shows the % of possible sunshine, by month, throughout the year. Victoria gets a slightly lower percentage of possible sunshine than Toronto during the winter, from December until March. However, from April to October Victoria gets a higher percentage of possible sunshine. The difference is especially noticeable in July and August, when it's sunny nearly 70% of the time in Victoria compared with about 58% in Toronto.
Now let's compare temperature. While Victoria has much greater seasonal variation in precipitation and sunshine compared with Toronto, the opposite is true for temperature. The chart below shows the average daily maximum temperature in Victoria versus Toronto. Average maximum temperatures in Victoria range from 7 degrees in December to 21 degrees in July - a difference of about 14 degrees. In contrast, maximum temperatures in Toronto range from -2 degrees in January to 27 degrees in July - a range of 29 degrees, or more than twice the range experienced in Victoria. The average daily maximum temperature is warmer in Victoria for half the year, from mid-April to mid-October. The greatest difference is in mid-January, when the average daily maximum is nearly 10 degrees warmer in Victoria compared with Toronto. In contrast, in July the average daily maximum temperature is 6 degrees cooler in Victoria compared with Toronto. (It should be noted that the numbers for Victoria are based on Victoria Gonzales, located right on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Away from the Strait, at the University of Victoria, the average high temperature in July is 23.8 degrees, nearly 3 degrees warmer than Gonzales).
The next chart shows average daily overnight low temperatures in Victoria versus Toronto. The pattern is very similar to the daily high temperatures discussed above: there is a much greater seasonal range in Toronto, with average overnight lows ranging from -8 degrees in January to nearly 19 degrees in July (a 27 degree range). In Victoria, overnight lows range from 3 degrees in December to 12 degrees in August (a 9 degree range, only one third of the range in Toronto). Average overnight lows in Victoria exceed those in Toronto for an even longer period than the daytime highs do, from early October to early May. In Toronto, average overnight lows are below 0 from the beginning of December to the end of March, and Toronto averages 101 days per year with overnight lows below freezing. Victoria averages less than 10 such "frost days" per year.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was -15.6 degrees in December 1968. On the other hand, Victoria has experienced 7 winters in the past 118 years when the temperature did not drop below freezing. The coldest temperature recorded during the winter of 1925-26 was +1.1 degrees, making it the highest low temperature for any winter on record. In Toronto, the lowest temperature ever recorded was -32.8 degrees. The highest low temperature for any winter in Toronto was -13.1 degrees during the winter of 2005/06. In Victoria, the average coldest temperature each winter is -4.8 degrees, while the average winter low temperature for Toronto is -20 degrees.
The record maximum temperature for Victoria is 36.0 degrees versus 40.6 degrees for Toronto. Toronto gets an average of 50 days per year above 25 degrees and 13 days above 30 degrees. In contrast, Victoria gets an average of just 8 days per year above 25 degrees and 1 day per year above 30 degrees. Again, if you measure the temperature away from the Strait of Juan de Fuca (at the University of Victoria), it's more like 27 days above 25 degrees and 3 days above 30 degrees. Either way, Victoria's summers are much cooler than Toronto's - and no humidity!
So who wins the climate smackdown? I think it's pretty clear that Victoria wins in terms of more sunshine, less rain, and much less snow. It also wins for having much milder winters. However, the summer temperatures are more subjective. Being a Victoria native, I love the cool summers here, but I know that some people prefer the heat in the summer. Give me cool, dry and sunny over hot and muggy any day, although it would be nice to have a few more warmer summer evenings in Victoria! Overall, I still have to give this one to Victoria.
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