Newsflash, folks – It does snow in Toronto.

It snows frequently in fact, despite what other Canadian cities, the news, our previous mayor, these guys, and even some Torontonians, seem to think. The past two days we’ve been warned of this impending doom, only to wake up to a very pretty morning with some lovely white stuff on the ground. My parents, who’ve been in Canada virtually all of their adult lives, were nonplussed and drove to work as usual. Tito unconcernedly drove to Ajax this morning. It’s a regular day here in the T-dot, except that half the city stayed home, which I just do not get.

Here are few snow stats to back me up ;o)

• Winter 07-08 – total snowfall in downtown Toronto – 194.0 cm
• Winter 08-09 – total snowfall in downtown Toronto – 119.1 cm
• Winter 09-10 – La Niña year – ok, so there wasn’t much snow, but that’s rare
• This winter so far  – 120 cm, and it’s only February.
• Average annual snowfall, according to wikipedia – 133 cm

For comparison sake:

• The average annual snowfall in Winnipeg, MB is 110.6
• The average annual snowfall in Calgary, AB is 126.7
• The average annual snowfall in Edmonton, AB is 123.7
• The average annual snowfall in Vancouver, BC is 46.5

Ok, so Montreal royally trumps us in snow with an average of 226.2, but still, we’re up there. So take that, Western Canada!

(source)

To celebrate our proven snowiness I’m posting some of my favourite winter photography from the past few years, enjoy!

Winter 08 – I took this photo at Harbourfront at 5 am, just before the sun came up after after a lovely storm.

Did I mention that it also gets quite cold here? This is Lake Ontario – responsible for moderating much of Toronto’s weather trends, on a frozen morning.

Earlier this same winter =o) Doggies love the snow!

Winter 07 – in the Toronto Music Gardens

Winter ’10 – This is the Leslie Street Spit – the breakers were totally coated in ice.

Another shot from that same day – just gorgeous!

Another lovely dawn shot.

From the Toronto Music Gardens.

We had a good 30 or so cm today, so I’ll be going out tonight, yes, you guessed it, shooting. I can’t wait – winter is just another opportunity to wear all kinds of knitted goodies and drink lots of hot chocolate – what’s not to love?