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Geography and Climate of Canada

Canada is the world’s second largest country. It occupies the northern part of the North American continent and a number of islands, the biggest of which are Vancouver in the West, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the east, Victoria and Baffin Islands in the north. The country is washed by the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the east.

Canada borders on Alaska in the west and the rest of the USA in the south. Its total area is almost 10 million square kilometres.

Canada has great systems of mountains in the east and in the west. The highest mountain is situated in the Saint Elias Mountains. It is Logan and it is 6,050 m high.

The north of the country is a cold tundra, it has its very special northern weather. In the centre of the country there are prairies.

Canada possesses nearly 15 per cent of the world’s fresh water.

The country’s longest rivers are the Mackanzie, the St Lawrence River and the Frazer.

Canada has very many lakes. There are so many of them that it is very hard to count them. The governmental research says that the country has more than 4 million lakes. Canada shares some of them with the United States, the biggest ones of them are called the Great Lakes. They are Lakes Superior, Ontario, Erie and Huron.

Other big lakes are Great Slave Lake, Great Bear Lake, Lake Winnipeg and others, they also attract tourists from all over the world.

Canada takes the third place in the world in a number of forests.

It is rich in natural resources such as non-ferrous metals, uranium, oil, natural gas, and coal, so, chemical and machine-building industries are well developed.

Canada is divided into several climate zones. In the eastern and central parts, the climate is continental with hot summer and cold winter. In the south-western and southern parts of Canada the climate is mild.