John, southern Ontario is much like Ohio. Outside urban areas it is mostly rolling hill farmland. Densely populated farmland. A lot of corn gets grown. Humid in the summer, winter temps similar to Detroit, Chicago, Boston. The area I am referring to ranges between 50 and 150 miles wide and stretches 450 miles from Detroit to the Quebec border.
Imagining Ontario is all forest and lake is like imagining all of the south is swamp and bayou.
Now, go north 50 - 100 miles and you are right. There is a very clear demarcation between "the north" and "the south". The landscape usually changes radically within a 10 mile stretch as you go north or south, sometimes within 1/2 mile. There is also a line we refer to as "the snow belt". I can draw it on a map. It's about 10 miles wide and very often in the winter lots of snow north of it and none south of it.
I'm 60 miles away from Toronto, the fourth largest metro area in Canada and the USA, surpassed only by NYC, Chicago and LA. We like to portray ourselves as living in the Great White North, but from personal experience, I can tell you that North and South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota etc are typically colder and snowier than where 80% of Canadians live.
Of all the places I have been in the USA, the closest in appearance to most of southern Ontario that I have seen is Minnesota, south of Minneapolis. Down by Owatonna, Faribault or Rochester.
Last edited by canvasback; 08/09/14 01:41 PM.
