Snowiest Canadian Cities

St. John's, Newfoundland and Saguenay, Quebec top the lists as Canada's snowiest large cities. St. John's ranks first for total amount of snow, while Saguenay has the most days with fresh snowfall.

Saguenay also leads the country's cities for how long snow lingers on the ground. But at St John's, all that snow doesn't stick around for long. The city doesn't even make the top ten for most persistent snowpack.

The tables below list the major Canadian cities that get the largest amount of snow each year, record the most days with fresh snowfall, and have the longest periods of snow on the ground.

The cities included in these rankings are Canada's 33 largest metropolitan areas. These are the urban regions that had over 100,000 people according to the 2011 census by Statistics Canada. The snow data are averages of weather measurements made from 1981 to 2010.

Greatest Amount of Snow

Ten of Canada's large cities receive an average of over two metres (6.6 feet) of snow every year. These cities with the most snow are scattered throughout Central Canada and the Maritime Provinces.

Annual average snowfall a year.

City	Inches	Centi­metres
St. John's, Newfoundland	131.9	335.0
Saguenay, Quebec	126.6	321.7
Québec City, Quebec	119.4	303.4
Sherbrooke, Quebec	112.8	286.5
Moncton, New Brunswick	111.0	282.0
Sudbury, Ontario	103.7	263.4
Trois-Rivières, Quebec	102.0	259.0
Saint John, New Brunswick	94.3	239.6
Barrie, Ontario	87.8	223.0
Montréal, Quebec	82.5	209.5

Most Days With Fresh Snow

Canada's ten cities that most often get snow all average more than 55 days a year when 2 millimetres or more snow lands.

With 54 days of snow a year, Calgary, Alberta does not quite make the list of most days with new snow. But Calgary often sees fresh snow at times of the year when most other cities don't expect any snow at all. Calgary has more snowy days in May, September and October than any other large Canadian city. It averages two or three days of snowfall in May, another one or two in September and four in October.

Average number of days a year with at least 0.2 centimetres (0.08 inches) of new snow

City	Days
Saguenay, Quebec	93
St. John's, Newfoundland	79
Sherbrooke, Quebec	76
Sudbury, Ontario	75
Québec City, Quebec	70
Thunder Bay, Ontario	62
Kitchener - Waterloo, Ontario	62
London, Ontario	60
Montréal, Quebec	59
Regina, Saskatchewan	56

Longest Lasting Snow

There's snow on the ground for over four months a year in ten of Canada's major cities. The longest periods of lingering snow are found at cities in Quebec, Ontario and the Prairie Provinces.

These Canadian cities average more than 120 days a year with at least a centimetre of snow cover:

Average number of days a year when snow is 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) or more deep.

City	Days
Saguenay, Quebec	155
Québec City, Quebec	141
Sudbury, Ontario	136
Trois-Rivières, Quebec	134
Sherbrooke, Quebec	133
Edmonton, Alberta	133
Winnipeg, Manitoba	128
Thunder Bay, Ontario	126
Regina, Saskatchewan	125
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	124