Sunday, July 20, 2008

How's the weather 'up' here?


View Larger MapWhile I'm on the topic of interesting questions asked by visitors, I'd like to answer two common visitor questions: where is Bay of Fundy? and, what's the weather like up here? This may be especially helpful to our American friends who may be a bit less familiar with our geography.

LOCATION: As the crow flies, the Bay of Fundy is located about 200 miles (650 km) east of Portland, Maine, or about 400 miles (750 km) from Boston, Massachusetts. In fact, we're actually closer to Boston than we are to Canada's capital city, Ottawa, in the province of Ontario - 600 miles (950 km) away - see map.

The Bay of Fundy is actually situated at 45 degrees latitude: 4 degrees further south than the Canada-U.S. border, commonly referred to as the "49th parellel". The Bay lies between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick & Nova Scotia (see coloured sections on the map)

WEATHER: Since we are on the eastern seaboard of North America, we get basically the same weather as Boston, just a few hours later as the Gulf Stream moves further along the coast. Just like Maine, we do love our fog in the summers which often 'burns off' by mid-morning.

Our temperature is reported in degrees Celsius (C). Yesterday's daytime temperature of 26 degrees Celsius is 80 degrees Fahrenheit; our 32 degrees C is 90 degrees F to Americans. Typical daytime summer and autumn temperatures are in the high 20s and sometimes 30s C. Summer evenings can stay in the 20s or high teens (70s in F) - better for sleeping!

We do get snow but only in the winter - starting in December (by Christmas if we're lucky) and ending in March. Just like Boston, we don't have snow in the spring, summer or fall, nor can you see the Northern lights from our Bay - you'd need to be much further north. We are as far away from the north pole as we are from the equator!

To check the weather forecast prior to your arrival, visit the Environment Canada website for New Brunswick or Nova Scotia or check out the weather maps links on the Fundy tourism website.

2 comments:

SWE said...

I would add that if you're hoping to get out on the bay, it pays to have back-up plans. We managed to time our recent trip to perfectly correspond with several days of non-stop fog. Rain is fine for watching whales, fog is not.

Terri said...

yep, good point!!