346 



The Natiqnal Geographic Magazine 



Summer and Winter Isothermal Lines of 

 Victoria, B. C. 



nary and February, joining them by an 

 isothermal line running from ocean to 

 ocean/ 



The summer isotherm of 60° after 

 leaving Victoria enters the mainland north 

 of Vancouver and runs inside the coast 

 line as far north as the Yukon; then, 

 bending southeast, it passes south of 

 Hudson Bay, north of Quebec, and en- 

 ters the Atlantic at Sydney, Nova Scotia. 

 South of this line it is hotter than in \^ic- 

 toria in July and August, and north of it 

 it is colder. 



The winter isotherm of 40°, after leav- 

 ing Victoria, enters the mainland at Seat- 

 tle and runs inside the coast line as far 

 south as Phoenix, Arizona ; then, crossing 

 the southern states, enters the Atlantic 

 at Norfolk, A'irginia. South of this line 

 it is warmer than in Victoria in January 

 and February, and north of it it is 

 colder ; so that, on the Pacific coast, in 

 A^ictoria, we find the temperature of 

 Nova Scotia in summer and that of Nor- 

 folk, Virginia, in winter. This is the 

 more remarkable when we consider that 



\'ictoria is 150 miles farther north than 

 Svdnev and 700 miles farther north than 

 Norfolk. 



In this connection it is interesting to 

 glance at the absolute maximum and 

 minimum surface temperatures of the 

 following cities of North America for 

 1905 as reported in the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau Sunimarv for that vear. Chart 

 XIV : 



Highest. Lowest. 



Victoria 84 23 



Winnipeg 87 -39 



Toronto 92 - 6 



^lontral 87 -12 



Quebec 90 -19 



Sydney 88 -13 



Boston 94 .^ 



New York 96 o 



Wasiiington, D, C 95 - 2 



Norfolk, Va 95 12 



Atlanta, Ga 93 2 



Jacksonville, Fla 95 17 



New Orleans 95 18 



Oklahoma 98 -11 



Phcenix, Arizona 116 26 



St. Louis, Mo 96 -18 



Chicago 95 -18 



Salt Lake City 97 . -4 



Sacramento no 28 



Portland, Oregon 99 17 



Seattle go 20 



It will be noticed that all other cities 

 mentioned have both a higher and lower 

 temperature than Victoria, with the ex- 

 ception of Phoenix, Arizona, and Sacra- 

 mento, California, in which cases the 

 winter minimum is not so low as at Vic- 

 toria. 



The following table aft'ords a compar- 

 ison of Victoria's average rain and snow 

 fall with that of other Canadian cities for 

 a 20-year period :- 



Rain. Snow. 



Victoria 30.2 17.6 



Winnipeg 15.2 49.4 



Montreal 30. i 123.4 



Sydney, N. S 42.6 83.6 



From the above it will be seen that the 

 average rainfall of Victoria is similar to 

 that of Montreal, Winnepeg's being less 

 and Sydney's greater, and that the snow- 

 fall of Victoria is one-seventh of that of 

 Montreal, one-fifth of that of Sydney, 

 and one-third of that of Winnipeg. 



The following table gives the absolute 



