Location
Ontario is located in the central region of Canada between Quebec to the east and Manitoba to the west. In relation to the USA, Ontario is north of Michigan, New York, Wisconsin & Minnesota states.

Geography
The capital city of Canada is Ottawa, located in Eastern Ontario. Canada’s largest city and the capital of Ontario is Toronto, located in south central Ontario.

Smaller cities, from east to west, include Kingston, Peterborough, Kitchener, Waterloo, London and Windsor.

Ontario has borders on 4 of the 5 Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario – the largest fresh water system on earth.

Climate
Because of the influence of the Great Lakes, Ontario experiences smaller variations in temperature and higher precipitation than would otherwise be expected for a region in the heart of a continent.

In summer, these lakes have a cooling effect on neighbouring cities. But, in the south of the province, such as in Windsor or Toronto, heat waves lasting up to a week with temperatures higher than 30°C, are not uncommon.

In the fall, the release of heat stored in the lakes has a moderating effect. Comfortable, sunny days and cool, bracing nights make this season a favourite time of year.

Winter is characterized by alternating currents of cold arctic air and relatively warm air masses from the Gulf of Mexico.

Since most of the province lies on North America's major storm track, winter weather systems travel through Ontario on average every 3 to 5 days. Ontario is the battleground between cold arctic air invading from the north and the warm moist air pushing up from the Gulf of Mexico.

Ontario covers so much territory that the average daily temperatures may differ by as much as 20°C. For example, the average daily temperatures in January range from near minus -24°C in northern portions of the province to a relatively balmy -4°C in South-western Ontario.