Q: I know it snowed today pretty badly but the snow doesnt stay and its pretty green most of the time the weather is really good the rain doesnt bother me but why is it like that here and not in the rest of the canada? Can someeone explain to me why the weather is not so intense like in the rest of canada? Are there any other places in Canada where it doesnt snow like here?
A: The ocean moderates the temperature quite a lot in Vancouver and Victoria. It acts as a giant heat sink and absorbs heat in the summer, preventing the land nearby from getting too warm, and releases heat in the winter, preventing the land nearby from getting too cold. Vancouver is, as a result, very mild by Canadian standards in the winter (warm enough that palm trees grow in the odd place near the ocean) and quite cool in the summer. Conversely, places like Regina are far from the ocean and the weather is more extreme. This is why Regina can be 40 degrees in the summer in a heat wave but -40 in the winter in a cold snap. While Vancouver can occasionally get up to 32 to 35 degrees, this is very rare, and it seldom gets below about -15 (and rarely even this cold). There are other parts of the world with similar climates. Coastal Scotland rarely freezes, and is significantly north of Vancouver.
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