Canada is the second largest country on earth, covering an area of 10 million square kilometres
(3.9 million square miles). Three oceans border Canada: the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Atlantic
Ocean in the east, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Altogether, Canada has over 200,000 kilometres
(125,000 miles) of coastline. Canada shares two borders with the United States: a very long border in
the south and another long frontier in the northwest.
Due to its large size, Canada has many different types of landscape. There are areas with high mountains,
different types of forests, prairie grasslands and arctic tundra where the ground is permanently frozen.
Canada is also home to many rivers and lakes.
Like Canada’s landscapes, the climate varies across the country. In the areas where most of the
population lives, there are generally four distinct seasons – summer, fall, winter and spring.
• Summer lasts from around June to September
and the weather varies from warm to hot, with
daytime temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees
Celsius or Centigrade (68 and 86 degrees
Fahrenheit) or higher. In southern Ontario
and Quebec it can often be very humid.
• Fall and spring are transition seasons during
which the weather becomes progressively
colder or warmer and much of the annual
rainfall occurs
• Winter is very cold in most places, with
temperatures often well below zero degrees
Celsius or Centigrade (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
Snow covers the ground from around
December to March or April. An exception
is southwest British Columbia (including the
cities of Victoria and Vancouver) where winter
temperatures generally remain above zero
degrees and rain is more common than snow
