We are interested in Nova Scotia having become a little disheartened by the property prices in Vancouver. NS looks great, and I don't have too much of a problem with the size of Halifax. Our concern is more to do with the climate. Can anyone give me some information as to what exactly the weather is like in the winter, and how cold it does actually get ?

Here is a link to Environment Canada's website for Climate Normals 1971-2000 for Halifax, this will give you some idea of average monthly temps and precipitation amounts plus other weather information.


http://climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.c...s=&StnId=6358&

Heres a link for the daily data in Halifax for January of this year you can also change the month and year at the top and bottom of the chart to any month or year you want.

Cheers
Steve

A few winters ago we were in Halifax in February, and with wind chill it got to -29c and our eyelashes froze like Ranulph Fiennes at the north pole

Weirdly though it doesn't feel all that cold, as long as you have a decent jumper and jacket, and a hat and gloves. We have felt a lot colder at 0c in the UK, and think it was down to how damp it feels over here, where as it was a very dry cold over there, so you don't 'feel it in your bones' in the same way...

Hangman has given great links to give you some real facts. I can only give an opinion and a comparison to the UK and New Brunswick.

It does get cold here, but nowhere near as bad as places further from the coast. The cold is definitely a dryer cold than the UK, and as has been mentioned above, it is quite easy to deal with as long as you prepare.

They can have big dumps of snow in Halifax, but the temperature fluctuates quite a bit, and it can clear quite quickly. In NB, you get a more constant below freezing which keeps it around. However, they are great at clearing the snow, and if it is too bad, they just shut the place down and you stay at home

If you are planning on doing outside activities in the winter, we found that anything below about -8C is too cold to go for a decent walk. But it won't consistently get like that here anyway.

The most dissapointing thing about my first Canadian winter was that I couldn't make a snowball in Fredericton - bloody snow is too dry to stick together Never mind, I'll live

I went to Halifax in the summer for 3 weeks a few years back, absolutely baking!
Seems they get proper seasons over there.
By the way it's raining here-again!!

Its just peaked at 27 degrees here with a clear sky.......lovely!

Thanks everyone. Your responses have been very helpful, and it does sound like NS is worth investigating further. I guess the only way to really find out is to take a trip out there in the winter

Whaterever you do don't take a trip in the winter! Orginally dh and I were supposed to be moving to Halifax as my husband had a job lined up. So we thought we had better go and visit first because although we had been to canada a couple of times we had never been to NS. So we went in Feb as we got cheap flights to Boston - 100 quid - as it was just after 9/11. We drove from Boston to Halifax and stayed over in NB. That night there was a huge dump of snow and when we arrived in Halifax it was waist deep.

Us being, true Brits , were dressed in the best that M&S had to offer and were woefully unprepared for the cold (-20 with a wind chill) anyway I freaked, had a complete meltdown and said that there is "no way I am living here!" and basically didn't give the place a chance.

We ended up moving to BC. But we had to suffer 2 years of him working in Chilliwack (awful, awful awful place) before we could move to Kelowna. I often wonder what would have happened if I had a given Halifax a chance, if the weather had of been better or if we had been better prepared for the cold. Of course now where we live it gets down to -20 some days and we are prepared for it so it is no big deal.

I must admit I miss living by the ocean (I lived in Devon/Brighton in UK) and wonder if there might be a bit more history in Halifax than out here in the west. Our neighbours are from Halifax - they love it there and would love to move back if they could. They are getting married in Sept of next year so we will be flying out to Halifax for the wedding. I am excited to see what it looks like without the snowstorm. I hope I don't want to move again...

Georgina

We on the other hand visited in January last year expecting it to be just as you have described and hoping to get a sense of a Canadian winter - the weather was very mild for the time of year, no colder than the UK and there was just one minor snow flurry one morning that had cleared by lunch time. The rest of the week was cold but sunny. We felt a little cheated that we had not had worse weather