So I am around as far north/as "cold" (a.k.a "least hot") as I can get for any large, major city, south of the southern border. So there are no more large, major cities that have less hot summers than the one I am in right now, except for those that are in Canada.
I am curious on what are the summers like in these 6 Canadian cities specifically, in terms of actual human experience:
- Toronto
- Ottawa
- Winnipeg
- Edmonton
- Calgary
- Vancouver
How would you describe the summers in these cities? Is it generally comfortable (too hot/cold)? How widespread is AC adapation (percentage wise/etc), and where can I find data on this topic? Is air conditioning universal? Is AC something that is needed every day, or is it only necessary to use it on only rare occassions? How many days are too hot to do rigourous physical activities outdoors?
I know I can already consult the average and percentile data for any city globally, and I did do so already, but an average and percentile can only tell so much. Averages cannot necessarily describe how widespread the local population is going to adapt AC, or if a summer "feels comfortable or not" to a person. (In Melbourne Australia, the average maximum is "only" 26C, but since it can hit 44C then they'd still adapt AC even if it's 2C "colder" than my city).
I am coming from a baseline of 28C as the average daily maximum, 19C for average minimum, and 18C for dew point. A typical year seems a mean absolute maximum around 36C, but this summer has reached 39C with the heat index higher. 94% of households have air conditioning within my current area. So that is my reference point.
I'm not too surprised with Toronto, since it seems to be only 1.6-1.7C colder than the city I am in right now, straight across the board in terms of summertime averages/records/percentiles. I've had about 5 or 6 days at 35C+ so far this summer, and Toronto seems to have 5-6 days above 33-34C in comparsion based on the data I've seen. I've occasionally found the temperature difference becomes hard to notice with Toronto, and it's heat wave criteria is only 1C lower than the threshold in my current area.
But the other 5 Canadian cities I've listed outside of Toronto seem a lot more interesting as the temperature difference in averages is greater, which makes me more curious whether the lower summer temperatures has a noticable impact on experience/quality of life/AC usage or not. Do the other 5 Canadian cities actually have more tolerable summers in actual human experience?