Canadians have a long winter and a sense of humour to match. This set of memes, shared on Imgur, labels everyday winter scenes “Canadian”: a weather change in Calgary, a car buried in a snowbank, a moose at the back door. Behind each joke is something real about life in a cold country.
Canadian weather change: Calgary and the chinook
The first meme shows the same man on 1 March 2013, smiling in a shirt, and on 3 March 2013, wrapped in a hat and scarf, with the caption “Welcome to Calgary, Alberta, Canada!”. Calgarians know the feeling, and the reason has a name: the chinook.
A chinook is a föhn wind. Moist Pacific air rises over the Rocky Mountains, drops its moisture as rain and snow, then sinks down the eastern slopes, warming and drying as it falls. The Blackfoot call it the “snow eater”, because a strong chinook can make a foot of snow almost disappear in a day. Temperatures can swing wildly: on 6 January 1966, Pincher Creek in southern Alberta warmed by 25.5 °C in a single hour, from −23.2 °C to 2.2 °C. The belt from Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass to Lethbridge averages 30 to 35 chinook days a year, and when the wind stops, the cold comes straight back.
Canadian romance, news and polo: the moose jokes
Three of the memes star the moose. In “Canadian Romance” a man leans in to kiss a moose beside a snowy deck and barbecue; “Canadian News” shows a TV headline about a Quebec snowmobiler who died after driving under a moose; and “Canadian Polo” is an edited picture of a rider on a moose’s back.
The jokes work because moose really are everywhere. Canada has the world’s largest moose population, estimated at 500,000 to 1,000,000 animals. Adults stand 1.4 to 2.1 metres at the shoulder, and bulls usually weigh 380 to 700 kilograms. In winter a dense coat of hollow guard hairs over a woolly undercoat keeps them warm, and their hooves splay to stop them sinking into snow. The size is no joke on the road: a moose’s centre of mass sits above the bonnet of most cars, so in a collision the body can crush the front of the roof, and such crashes are often fatal.
Canadian parking and archaeology: life with snowbanks
“Canadian Parking” shows a car sealed inside a wall of ploughed snow with only its rear bumper showing, and “Canadian Archaeology” looks down on a car park where people dig out vehicles buried almost to the roof. Across much of inland Canada, snow can cover the ground for almost six months of the year, and the Prairie and interior regions have daily average winter temperatures near −15 °C, sometimes dropping below −40 °C. Coastal British Columbia, by contrast, has mild, rainy winters.
Canadian fast food and breakdancing
The last two jokes are about getting around. “Canadian Fast Food” shows a queue of skid-steer loaders and snow-clearing machines lined up at a fast-food drive-through at night, and “Canadian Breakdancing” catches a pedestrian mid-fall on an icy car park. Winter boots with good grip, or slip-on ice cleats, are the Canadian answer to the second one.
For a serious look at cold cities, see our cold-city comparison guide. For another winter joke built around an ordinary household problem, visit the snow-fridge feature.
Related reading
- Inside Québec’s Hôtel de Glace: Ice Rooms, Sculptures and Seasonal Design
- Abraham Lake’s Ice Bubbles: Layers beneath the Surface
- Mount Robson Provincial Park: A Mountain, a Lake and Different Journeys
- A Lake Louise Snowboard Lap with Blayne Campbell
- A Grizzly Encounter on a Jasper Mountain-Bike Ride
- Columbia Icefield Skywalk: A Glass View over the Valley
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