I’ve seen strawberries being grown commercially on the west coast of Norway at 61.8 degrees north. It wasn’t even at sea level. That’s as far north as the Greenland ice cap or the northern half of Hudson Bay.
Is that -40 F or -40 C?
When I walked to 4 miles to work (before I retired) I drew the line at -25 C.
The Montreal underground city does not connect to any university as was claimed above. It also goes through a number of commercial buildings some or all of which will close nights and weekends, so less useful than it might be. But east to west, it is probably over a mile and has some N/S extensions. I have walked most of it many times. Without going above ground you can pass 6 Metro stops.
I think it interesting to observe that if you drive from Montreal to NY or VT, you will see farms solidly up to border, but there seems to be very little if any agriculture just south of the border.
The Great Sandhills, which I believe are not technically a desert as the annual precipitation is too high. There’s a rough triangle between Leader, Swift Current, and Maple Creek where agriculture is…challenging.
Thanks, Gorsnak. I knew someone here on the Dope would know the name.
There’s also the Athabaska Sand Dunes way up north in Saskatchewan, one of the northern-most active sand dune areas in the world.
Don’t underestimate the effect of having an ocean to the west. Paris is at roughly the same latitude as Seattle, WA and just south of Vancouver, BC. All three cities have similar weather.
Considerably south of those cities are Boston, Portland, ME and Beijing; all three have much colder winters than the first three.
It seems to me that having a sea to your west is the driving factor in mild-wintered high-latitude places. The Gulf Stream may play a role, but it’s secondary.
Southern Alberta is semi-arid, and has been called a semi-desert. It’s not technically desert because it gets slightly too much precipitation, but the chinook winds cause rapid evaporation and as a result the plant and animal life get desert-level amounts of water. So the region looks pretty much like desert with sagebrush, cacti, lots of rattlesnakes and other typical desert creatures.
As far as 90% of the people living within 100 miles of the border, that’s true but not because Canada is uninhabitable above that, but simply because of a handful of huge cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, etc. Canadians congregate along the border for economic reasons, and not necessarily because of climate.
But there are lots of cities above the 100 mile line - Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Kelowna, Winnipeg (barely), Regina (also barely), etc. Edmonton is almost 400 miles north of the U.S. border, and the entire region is well populated and full of farms, ranches, etc.
There’s also the area known as the “Palliser Triangle”.
When Palliser explored the area in 1857 it was during dry times. He concluded it was uninhabitable. By the time the CPR railway was built in the mid-1880’s, the area was in the wet cycle and it was thought the prairies were good for farming.
it took a few cycles to realize droughts come and go about every few decades. There was the dustbowl of the 1930’s like the USA, and the repeat in the 1980’s.
But it’s not desert per the OP’s question. Not most of the time.
Canada is a big country. 80% of Canucks live in cities, and most of these are in the south where the weather tends to be warmer.
About 5% of Canadian land is suitable for growing crops. About 10% is covered with fresh water. About 10% is covered with muskeg, a kind of mossy swamp which is hard to build on. About 40% of Canada is covered with forest; 10% of the world’s trees.
If “habitable” means you can build, hunt and fish, then maybe 2/3 of the land is habitable? If it means growing crops, then only about 5%. Unless you are a good swimmer or fond of wild berries.
We know your population is massed along the border in preparation for an invasion.
Canadians invade the US every year, right about this time, in fact. After 6 months, we manage to repel the invasion and they go back home.
Five months and 25 days, usually. If you’re out of the country for six months, you lose health care coverage and have a waiting period when you come back.
Most Canadians I’ve met outside Canada have been in Central America between the fall and spring equinoxes. My wife and I are mistaken for Canadians there because we’re courteous and well-bathed, -groomed, and -dressed.
One year we drove Arizona-Honduras-California-Yukon-Alaska-Idaho-Arizona. The worst drivers were in Whitehorse.
Does someone actually track the comings and goings of all those snowbirds? Maybe the Health authorities get to access the Customs’ database or something? Or is it all on the honor system?