h35j34

Thanks for all the recommendations, I've had a look at the weekend and defiantly a few options for us, and defiantly not as pricey as Toronto.

I am just not sure on the Calgary weather is ticking the boxes, I think Toronto is going to have first choice for me.

I wish I could afford Vancouver however on my budget I'd be looking to stay a little further out (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Delta, Surrey and Langley.) and would be townhouse rather than a house, from what I have looked at in Vancouver, thats one pricey place.

Photoplex

Calgary is the sunniest city in Canada.

h35j34

Yeah I had read this, I think this is what attracted my wife to it, along with the nice houses you can buy at a reasonable cost, its just the winters for me I think after the novelty has worn off, it will just become an everyday pain for the winter months

"Calgary has the most sunny days year round of Canada's 100 largest cities, with just over 332 days of sun; it has on average 2,396 hours of sunshine annually."

One of my main reasons for wanting to move is the weather where I am just now, I love the sun and I love the heat, but where I am we get neither. Calgary will with out a doubt going to improve the summer, the winters will be harsher but better in a way as its dry/sunny most of the time, just a lot of snow and thats where the problem is for me

Photoplex

By "a lot of snow", what are you imagining? We get snow, but it isn't anywhere near the kind of snow they get out in the far east.

The winter challenge with Calgary is the variability of the weather. It can be -35 and sunny one day, +5 the next, then a -20 blizzard on the 3rd. But mostly, it's really really sunny and cold. We get probably 4 - 5 days a winter where it dumps, and the city takes a week to get all the main, feeder, and residential roads cleared. That's the extent of it.

Bucks_Family

I've found that the "type" of snow is different here in the Calgary area - or any elevated place well away from large bodies of water, I expect; it's what you'd call a much more dry snow, not the big, wet, sticky flakes that the UK gets. So when it comes to clearing your driveway and sidewalk, often a brush will suffice, unless there's been a really heavy dump. But still, I find it a lot easier to move than the "wet" snow. Disappoints the kids though, as it's crap for making snowballs and snowmen.
I imagine that with the proximity to the Great Lakes, Toronto snow might be considerably different to that of the eastern slopes of the Rockies/prairies, but I can't say for sure.

Photoplex

That's true. I quite often clear the snow from our paths and sidewalks with a leaf blower. It's so dry and fine it just flies away.

h35j34

How much snow are we taking then? I had imagined this to be a fair bit of snow and prob more dumping’s of snow that what is being suggested by you guys, which is good news. How often is the snow more than ankle deep say? I had originally thought that the was snow deeper than a couple of inches for 90% of Nov-Mar, where digging out the car was a regular thing.

I am ok with the cold and snow that is manageable most of the winter, as long as its dry and sunny and not wet like the uk, dull and overcast skies for the majority.

What I imagine is that the months of Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, for half the months to be snow on the ground maybe 2 niches deep, with a couple days a month of a complete dumping?

March/April to be like 7-10 days of the month of snow lie, most 2 inch deep and out with those months Sep, Oct, May the odd day here and there no more that 3-5 days and no massive dumping’s.

Is this fairly accurate or am I way off for averages?

Almost Canadian

You are way off.

In the 10 years that I have lived in and around Calgary, I have never heard of anyone having to dig their car out like is frequently seen east of Calgary.

Most snowfalls are in the region of 2-6 inches and, usually, a chinook will blow by within a week or so so that the vast majority of the snow disappears. In other words, it is quite rare to have snow falling upon snow that fell previously.

Clearly, this doesn't always happen.

I live on an acreage 15 mins south of Calgary. We simply used a quad with a snow plow attached to the front of it to clear our drive, which is about 100 metres long. However, after a year or two, we noticed that the trees around our house caused drifts that the quad was unable to cope with, so we bought a tractor with a snow plough that attaches to the 3 point hitch. The road that our drive links to is cleared twice a day by the municipality so we never have issues. The Province clears the highway that I use to travel to the south of Calgary.

Once I hit Calgary, the roads are not always good. The biggest issue I suspect you will have with snow will be when you have a large dump that is not followed by a chinook. Your residential road will likely become very rutted and, if you have a car with low ground clearance, this could be an issue. The city does a pretty good job of clearing the main arteries but it always did an appalling job of clearing residential streets when I lived there. However, I understand that, for the last 2 years, it has upped its game somewhat.

Yorkiechef

Last year we probably had three days with snow of 4 to 6 inches, it takes 10 mins to clear away with a hand held plough. Snow stays on the lawn most of winter, mainly due to me ploughing it off my drive onto the lawn. Despite it being -19 ish....the sun is strong and it evaporates the snow rather than melts it, the snow stays dry.

In April we had a couple of days of slushy snow fall (wet snow). It melts and evaporates very quickly under the strong sun. I can remember one day when it was slippery, unusually in the shady areas of crow child and there were numerous accidents where one side of the car gripped on the Tarmac and the other side hit the slippery ice and folk were spinning out, usually because they were using all season tyres that are not upto the job when you have those conditions.

Run winter tires, reduce you speed a little and there is no problem.

h35j34

That is good to know that what I imagine is actually worse than the reality, in fact that is great news.

Cold, dry, sunny and snow occasionally through the winter months I can handle, it would appears a good improvement to my current winter, I just hate the wet, overcast, cold winters we have

Yorkiechef

One inch of snow in Calgary perhaps happens a dozen times a year, use the leaf blower and it's gone....absolutely no dramas.

One inch of snow in uk......chaos!

The winters are long and cold and towards the end you are praying for the end of winter, the last of the snow piles melt and bang, summer is here.

We had our first snow during the first week of October and spring arrived in May.

cheeky_monkey

Thats because mostly it is dry powdery snow that falls on the prairies not the wet heavy stuff you get in the UK so its easier to clear and drive around in..i loathe it here when April comes and you get English snow which is wet and slippery..no fun at all.

h35j34

Having looked more into Calgary suburbs against our original idea of Toronto, it does seem Calgary is more affordable, and of course further job research will play a part in this final decision.

The other big player is the weather, one of the reason for moving is to get a better overall yearly weather, central Scotland does not offer the best of this.

3 months of good weather is not much to ask for, where the rain is little, skies are blue and its above 20 most of that time and hits a good number a fair bit into the 27s...something we just don't get where we are.

More snow is a definite in Calgary, as is the cold, but if there is a summer to be had then I can cope...maybe!!!

Photoplex

The way I've always looked at is that we get 4 proper seasons here. A cold snowy winter, a green rainy spring, a hot stuffy summer, and a warm autumn.

Where I was raised in the UK, there was just summer season, and rainy season.

h35j34

Where I am is more like rainy season is always, and the summer is not really justified as a summer, if you get 4 days in a row blue skies, and no rain and above 20, its the best thing ever but that sadly is rare, there is alot of rain and dull overcast

I love when I holiday in Europe, went away start of June and not a drop of rain the whole time I was there 14 days, one overcast morning, just brilliant. I lived aboard for a year or so when I was younger (well early 20s) and loved the warm weather