Top List of Canadian Cities (Courtesy of MoneySense and CityNews)

High housing prices and crime are among the reasons for Toronto's plunge from #12 to #51 in an annual survey of the country's most liveable cities.

Ottawa topped MoneySense magazine's third annual list of Canada's Best Places To Live, which studied 154 communities and ranked them on a range of factors, among them economic, environmental, and social.

Six cities made the top ten list for the second year in a row - Ottawa, Ont., Victoria, B.C., Fredericton, N.B., Kingston, Ont., Moncton, N.B. and Halifax, N.S. - while four - Levis, Que., Winnipeg, Man., Burlington, Ont., and Vancouver, B.C. are new additions.

MoneySense also ranked the cities on what they had to offer in terms of weather, places to retire, and affordability.

"We look beyond pretty scenery or hot restaurants to find the places that deliver the best quality of life to residents," says MoneySense editor Ian McGugan. "Our methodology spans everything from home prices and weather to crime rates and the availability of medical care."
Toronto was one of the biggest sliders on the list, due to its flat population growth, relatively high crime rate and soaring housing prices in relation to income. On the flip side, Swift Current, Sask. jumped from #61 to #22, and Estevan, Sask. climbed from #68 to #34, their rise due to strong local economies and lower crime rates.

As far as how other GTA-area communities ranked, Burlington was tops overall at #8, Mississauga and Guelph came in at #11 and #12. Oakville made it to #26.
Overall winner Ottawa didn't actually make the top 10 in any of the individual categories, but fared quite well in all the categories, which is what put it atop the heap.

Top 10

1. Ottawa-Gatineau
2. Victoria B.C.
3. Fredericton, N.B.
4. Kingston, Ont.
5. Levis, Que.
6. Moncton, N.B.
7. Winnipeg, Man.
8. Burlington, Ont.
9. Halifax, N.S.
10. Vancouver B.C.

For a detailed description of the study and how other cities finished, see the complete rankings at www.moneysense.ca.

April Fools Showers Bring Mother's Day May Flowers

WE should be seeing some precip on April 1st. But temperatures will be higher.

Go to www.citynews.ca/weather for information.

I NEED TO RUN TO A WEATHER SEMINAR CONFERENCE ON DELIVERING THE WEATHER IN AN "UNDERSTANDABLE WAY"...THE BOSS IS SENDING ME.

Chris

mailtocity.weather@yahoo.ca

An Answer For A Curious High School Student

I got this question via email. I've been getting them a lot and have just responded back through email. Now I've decided to post them.

Q. I want to become a Meteorologist. What courses in high school should I take?

A. It all depends the courses your school offers. I'll let you know the titles, but not the codes, every province is different. I graduated from the high school in Ontario.

Grade Eleven:

Physics

Chemistry

Calculus, Data Management

Any other math/science course that interest you.

English

Earth/Space Science


Grade Twelve:

Physics

Chemistry

Calculus, Data Management, Discrete Mathematics (not required, but recommended)

Any other math/science course that interest you.

English

Earth/Space Science OR/AND Atmospheric Science

*Courses should be taken at the highest level offered (i.e.; University type U Courses)

**Speak with your guidance councillor and browse around...it's the best to get a specific and detailed answer.

Good luck to all of you future meteorologists.


HAPPY EASTER!!! May the LORD be with you. Alleluia Alleluia!

Chris

city.weather@yahoo.ca

PS: Please be patient with me. I haven't been on my email system lately but I quickly browsed today and have 118 messages unread...that's what I'm doing tonight. Hopefully I'll get to all of them.

Exclusive Spring Forecast of 2008

CityWeather Meteorologist, Chris, will have your up-to-date, and exclusive Spring 2008 Forecast on Friday, March 21, 2008. Email your spring time stories, of what you plan to do this spring, and your personal predictions for the forecast to Chris at city.weather@yahoo.ca.

SPRING BREAK '08 - Let us know what you're doing at city.weather@yahoo.ca

Scheduled outage at 7:00 pm PDT on Wednesday, March 12, 2008.

Old Man Winter

I'm back! After a must-needed "off time" *cough cough* I'm back to blogging. Actually, I was at the Annual Severe Weather Seminar, and am both coordinating one in April and attending one for Environment Canada in May. Busy, busy!

Old Man Winter has made it's official return with a big dump of snow for the GTA and many many many parts of other regions across North America.

Old Man Winter Hands GTA Another Pounding + March Break Travelling

Environment Canada is predicting about 30 cm of snow before it's all said and done.

Chief Meteorologist Michael Kuss (CityNews) Blog: STORM RAMPS UP

But the weather should die down for Sunday by 9AM it should be cleared for a "final" shovelling. AND IS THAT THE END?

Check the complete forecast here.

CANCELLATIONS FOR THE GTA THROUGHOUT THIS WEEKEND IS AVAILABLE HERE.

Lastly, it's SPRING FORWARD!! Chjange your clocks AHEAD for tomorrow morning! It's daylight savings time.

We also want your snow pictures. Send them to city.weather@yahoo.ca for our blog. Be sure to check this blog and CityNews.ca for updates of the continuing storm coverage.


CITYWEATHER'S STORM CENTRE:

The storm centre of CityWeather is currently OPEN, which means that www.CityNews.ca and www.city-weather.blogspot.com will have continous 24/7 updates on both sites throughout the storm. Check back.

**Our Storm Centre is schedules to close for Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 12PM Noon. Check back for updates!

Good luck and have a great weekend.

Chris

Meteorologist

CityWeather

Your Questions Answered.

Since I've been assigned to night shift meteorologist, I haven't been checking my emails lately. Today is my last day, before the March Break that is, that I will be on night shifts so I decided to check my emails. 70 UNREAD EMAIL MESSAGES. Some I've responded directly and some through the blog. Special thanks to a few questions "answered" by CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss.

Why is Toronto often warmer than its surroundings?

This is known as the heat island affect. Due to the heat given off by buildings vehicles and people in a large city like Toronto and the heating by the sun of a city's dark surfaces like pavement the temperature can be 1C to 2C warmer in the day than if the city wasn't there. At night it's even more dramatic. On a calm, clear night temperatures can be as much as 12C warmer.

What's the difference between a meteorologist and a weather specialist? (THIS IS A FAMOUS ONE!!)

A meteorologist is someone with a four year degree in meteorology or atmospheric science. A weather specialist is someone with weather knowledge but hasn't studied or completed specific course work in the discipline. PS: Click on WeatherWeb and Meteorology as a Career link for information.

What is dewpoint?

Dewpoint (Td) is the point at which the air must be cooled to to become totally saturated. If the temperature is below freezing it is sometimes called the frost point. As the air temperature gets closer to the dewpoint temperature the humidity increases. Once the temperature dips to meet the dewpoint temperature and the air becomes totally saturated the water vapour starts to condense into water droplets. When this happens at the surface we get fog.

Then as I was searching through Michael Kuss' blog, he responded this most interesting email I personally ever have seen and it definetly brings up a good point, so I had to add it.

CityNews,

A line from today's story on the weather and snow prompted this letter because it's something I've been thinking about for a while. "Environment Canada says we've received 128 centimetres of the unwanted powder so far this winter"Who says it's unwanted? I know snow can be a major inconvenience, but it's part of living in Canada and we generally, not everyone of course, have a great time in winter. For example hockey, skiing, fun in the snow... The weather people (for all news outlets not just City) are always suggesting snow and cold are 'bad', 'ugly', 'nasty' etc. They also make it seem like a really good thing to be happy about when we get 15 degree days in the middle of January.

What about global Warming? Often they'll be another report of how our planet is in big trouble, getting hot too fast and all those other bad things; then later in the same newscast's weather report unseasonably hot something to be really happy about. I don't see how it makes sense. ITS SUPPOSED TO BE COLD AND SNOWY, so why can't we embrace it instead of complaining and being negative?

I personally find it gross if its way above freezing, the snow melts and turns into that filthy brown slush. However the weather people seem to think that is a pleasant day.
In closing I suppose I'd just like to know the reason behind the thinking winter equals bad.

Sincerely
Jacob

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERESTING ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION.



Wishing you from my family to yours, a Happy Family Day to all Ontario citizens.

CityWeather And The Graphics Conference + Our Week Blogger

Before I introduce to you our new weather blogger for just this week, I'd like to let you know that I'll be attending the First Annual CityWeather's Graphics Conference. This year's main topic is 3-D objects. Obviously we learn to create new graphics with colour schemes and fonts, but we do all that with learning how to use 3-D objects. This is only for CityWeather staff (bloggers, hosts, etc). We'd like to thank our General Manager for coordinating this event. We'll also be using Microsoft PowerPoint.

This conference is taking place in two weeks. I'll be blogging from there then. And now time for our guest blogger. Remember: he's not a meteorologist or weather specialist but he is learning about the weather. We'll keep his name anonomoys for now. See you in a week...

__________________________________________

GUEST BLOGGER: HI!!

HI! I'm your guest blogger...I look forward to learning about the weather just as much as you...I'll keep it short today...you can email me at city.weather@yahoo.ca ... but keep RE: GUEST BLOGGER in the subject line....good bye for now!!

CHEERS!!

GB (Guest Blogger)

Temporary Night Shift Meteorologist

I've been assigned by CityWeather to be the night shift meteorologist in the making. I'm still a weather specialist but by the time my night shift is over I'll be a fully trained meteorologist. I'm working as an intern...does that even make sense? I'll be on night shifts (8PM to 6AM) temporarily (which could mean a week to three months).

In weather news: an EXTREME COLD WEATHER ALERT IS IN EFFECT FOR G.T.A.

Chris

WEATHER-BLOGGER FOR A DAY

I'd like to introduce you to our Weather Blogger who has won our previous contest in July, 2007.

Kevin MacIsaac is our weather blogger. He'll be blogging next week. Email him at city.weather@yahoo.ca for further information. Remember: he's learning about weather...not a pro YET!

CHRIS

Heat Up To A Cool Down

Toronto was luck to be in their "January heat wave" with record breaking temps. Snow is coming thought with lows and highs getting lower, but not higher.

Go to http://www.citynews.ca/weather for info.

19th Annual Weather Summit

CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss was out all week in Steamboat, Colorado for the 19th Annual Weather Summit. This year's foucs is on Climate Change.

CityWeather has been tracking his trip through his blog. Below are links to his blog all week, and video links are included in his blog, as he too, has been tracking his trip and making international headlines. Click one of the many links below:

"Winter Break to Finally Break" - January 8, 2008
Foucs: CO2 Emmissions in the Atmosphere

"Cool Heads on a Hot Topic" - January 9, 2008
Foucs: Coal Fired Power Plants in China

Kuss returns to City on Monday - Rogers Cable 7, Expressvu 214.

Chris

The Meltdown

On a first note, we have 10 more blogs until we've reached a total of 100 CityWeather Blogs.

The main part of the blog: Toronto underwent a big thaw today with temperatures that reached a high of 13C and a low of only 10C. The big thaw is underway in the GTA. Record-breaking warmth and rain will dominate the early part of the week. The cold air on the backside of the warm weather system in Ontario is flooding south into Colorado.

Climate change is the topic of the 19th annual weather summit in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Meteorologist Michael Kuss from CityNews is down there. Watch for his stories on CityNews @ 6 starting Tuesday, January 8. His blog states "On Tuesday I'll be looking at the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and its effects. On Thursday I'll have an interesting story on the research done at the storm peak weather lab. They have recently discovered some troubling data on a dangerous substance in our atmosphere.". READ HIS COMPLETE BLOG HERE.

Chris

city.weather@yahoo,ca

Baby, It's Cold Outside.

Yeh, it's cold. Okay, freezing cold. Alright, alright, it's cold enough for an extreme cold weather alert to be out for the GTA. But we're Canadian. We should be used to this weather.

An Extreme Cold Weather Alert is in effect for Toronto until further notice. Check CityNews.ca for updates.

In Toronto, 9AM was at -14C, but with the windchill it felt like -24C. As I write this blog entry (12:12PM), we stand at -13C, feeling like -24C. This evening, we'll go down to -12C, (F.L: -19C) with trace amounts of flurries. And tonight, temperatures of -16C feeling like -24C.

Thursday we'll reach temperatures of -16C with sunny skies. In the afternoon we'll get to -7C with a low of -16C. Winds will be SW 5km/h, It's not for sure, but I'm predicting that the extreme cold weather alert will continue to Thursday morning, and possibly lift to a cold weather (or even nothing) alert by the afternoon-evening hour. Friday we begin to warm up to -2C with lows of -8C and we continue to warm up throughout the next seven days.

Now let's talk about global warming. Your probably saying that it sure doesn't feel like global waming but believe me it's plays a part. The seven-day forecast model shows that we'll reach highs of 13C by Wednesday....WHAT?!?!?!? Personally, I hate the warmth. I'd rather have frigid conditions--but eh I'm Canadian! I can't believe my eyes the big jump: double digit minus temperatures and in one week...double digit positive temperatures.

I'll keep you updated!

Comments? Email me at city.weather@yahoo.ca

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!! 2008!!!

Chris

Weather Specialist-Meteorologist

CityWeather

Related Links:

Check the full seven-day forecast here.

Check your current conditions here.

Keep updated with the extreme cold weather alert here.

Environment Canada website.