Canada - weather in December

December is the first month of winter in Canada, and it's the coldest of the year on the coast of British Columbia (see Vancouver), while in the rest of the territory, temperatures will drop a few more degrees in January and February.
The average temperatures are below freezing in almost all the territory, and the landscape is often covered in snow, except in the far west, on the coast of British Columbia (see Vancouver), overlooking the Pacific, where the climate is oceanic.
The north-central lakes, the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay are frozen. Even the Great Lakes, in the south, begin to freeze, generally by the end of the month, more or less extensively depending on the temperature.
During cold spells, the temperature can drop to very low values, below -40 °C (-40 °F) in large areas of central-north, below -30 °C (-22 °F) in inland areas of the south, below -15 °C (5 °F) on the east coasts, while on the west coast, in Vancouver, it generally does not drop below -5 °C (23 °F), although occasionally it can reach -15 °C (5 °F).
On the other hand, the chinook, a mild, dry wind capable of melting snow, can blow on the eastern side of the mountains.
Precipitation (rain or snow) is frequent in the south, in the area of the Great Lakes (see Toronto) and in Quebec (see Montreal, Ottawa), and even more in the east, where cold air collides with Atlantic air masses (in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, see Saint John's, Halifax). In this area, snowfalls are abundant, however, mild air from the south can bring the temperature above freezing and cause rain to fall instead of snow.
In the inland areas of the southwest, in the Great Prairies (see Edmonton, Calgary, Regina), precipitation is much scarcer. Even in the vast Arctic and Subarctic areas, in the provinces of Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut (see Alert, Inuvik, Yellowknife), light and frequent, but not abundant, snowfalls generally occur due to the cold.
On the coast of British Columbia (see Vancouver), on the other hand, the rains are frequent and abundant, while snowfalls are quite rare.
The days are very short in the center-north, and in the extreme north (see Alert) it is always dark and the sun never rises. On December 21, the day of the winter solstice, the sun does not rise from the Arctic Circle to the North Pole.




See also: Canada, the weather in November - January
The climate of Canada