Ontario

Ontario is the southernmost province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it is home to over 14 million people, which is 38.5% of the country's population. Ontario is the second-largest province by total area and the fourth-largest jurisdiction of all the Canadian provinces and territories. It is home to the nation's capital, Ottawa, and its most populous city, Toronto, which is Ontario's provincial capital.
Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast. To the south, it is bordered by the U.S. states of Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Almost all of Ontario's border with the United States follows rivers and lakes: from the westerly Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system. There is only about of actual land border, made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border.
The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land are in Southern Ontario, and while agriculture remains a significant industry, the region's economy depends highly on manufacturing. In contrast, Northern Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation, with mining and forestry making up the region's major industries.

Etymology

Ontario is a term thought to have Indigenous origins, either Ontarí:io, a Huron word meaning "great lake", or possibly skanadario, which means "beautiful water" or "sparkling water" in the Iroquoian languages. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes. The first mention of the name Ontario was in 1641, when "Ontario" was used to describe the land on the north shore of the easternmost part of the Great Lakes. It was adopted as the official name of the new province at Confederation in 1867.

Geography

The thinly populated Canadian Shield, which dominates the northwestern and central portions of the province, comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals, partly covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, and studded with lakes and rivers. Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions: Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario.
The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast are mainly swampy and sparsely forested.
Southern Ontario is further sub-divided into four sub-regions: Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe and Southwestern Ontario.
Despite the rarity of mountainous terrain in the province, there are large areas of uplands, particularly within the Canadian Shield, which traverses the province from northwest to southeast and also above the Niagara Escarpment, which crosses the south. The highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at above sea level in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands and in hilltops near the Madawaska River in Renfrew County.
The Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. The temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south is part of the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion where the forest has now been largely replaced by agriculture, industrial and urban development. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment. The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario covers approximately 87% of the province's surface area; conversely, Southern Ontario contains 94% of the population.
Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canada's mainland. Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°Nslightly farther south than the northern border of California.

Climate

Ontario's climate varies by season and location. Three air sources affect it: cold, dry, arctic air from the north ; Pacific polar air crossing in from the western Canadian Prairies/US Northern Plains; and warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontario's climate is classified as humid continental.
Ontario has three main climatic regions:

The surrounding Great Lakes greatly influence the climatic region of southern Ontario. During the fall and winter, the release of heat stored by the lakes moderates the climate near the shores which give parts of Southern Ontario not only a later start to winter conditions, but also generally milder winter temperatures than mid-continental areas at lower latitudes. In many areas, warmer spring temperatures are delayed by surrounding colder lake temperatures Parts of Southwestern Ontario and the Hamilton-Niagara region have a moderate humid continental climate, similar to the inland Mid-Atlantic states and lower Great Lakes portion of the Midwestern United States. The region has warm to hot, humid summers and cold winters. Annual precipitation ranges from and is well distributed throughout the year. Most of this region lies in the lee of the Great Lakes, making for abundant snow in some areas. In December 2010, the snowbelt set a new record when it was hit by more than a metre of snow within 48 hours.
The next climatic region is Central and Eastern Ontario, which has a moderate humid continental climate. This region has warm and sometimes hot summers with colder, longer winters, ample snowfall and annual precipitation similar to the rest of Southern Ontario.

In the northeastern parts of Ontario, extending south as far as Kirkland Lake, the cold waters of Hudson Bay depress summer temperatures, making it cooler than other locations at similar latitudes. The same is true on the northern shore of Lake Superior, which cools hot, humid air from the south, leading to cooler summer temperatures. Along the eastern shores of Lake Superior and Lake Huron winter temperatures are slightly moderated but come with frequent heavy lake-effect snow squalls that increase seasonal snowfall totals to upwards of in some places. These regions have higher annual precipitation, in some places over.
File:Lake Effect Snow on Earth.jpg|thumb|Cold northwesterly wind over the Great Lakes creating lake-effect snow. Lake-effect snow most frequently occurs in the snowbelt regions of the province.

The northernmost parts of Ontarioprimarily north of 50°Nhave a subarctic climate with long, severely cold winters and short, cool to warm summers with dramatic temperature changes possible in all seasons. With no major mountain ranges blocking sinking Arctic air masses, temperatures of are not uncommon; snow remains on the ground for sometimes over half the year. Snow accumulation can be high in some areas. Precipitation is generally less than and peaks in the summer months in the form of rain or thunderstorms.

Severe thunderstorms peak in summer. Windsor, in Southwestern Ontario, has the most lightning strikes per year in Canada, averaging 33 days of thunderstorm activity per year. In a typical year, Ontario averages 11 confirmed tornado touchdowns. Ontario had a record 29 tornadoes in both 2006 and 2009. Tropical depression remnants occasionally bring heavy rains and winds in the south, but are rarely deadly. A notable exception was Hurricane Hazel, which struck Southern Ontario centred on Toronto, in October 1954.

City	July	July	January	January
Windsor	28/18	83/64	0/−7	32/19
Niagara Falls	27/17	81/63	0/−8	30/18
Toronto	27/18	81/65	0/−7	31/20
Midland	26/16	78/61	−4/–13	25/8
Ottawa	27/16	80/60	−5/−14	23/7
Sudbury	25/13	77/56	−8/−18	18/1
Thunder Bay	25/11	77/52	−8/−19	18/−3
Kenora	24/15	76/59	−11/−20	11/−4
Moosonee	23/9	73/48	−14/–26	8/–15

History

Indigenous habitation (pre–1610)

were the first people to settle on the lands of Ontario, about 11,000 years ago, after crossing the Bering land bridge from Asia to North America between 25,000 and 50,000 years ago. During the Archaic period, which lasted from 8000 to 1000 BC, the population slowly increased, with a generally egalitarian hunter-gatherer society and a warmer climate. Trading routes also began emerging along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. Hunting and gathering remained predominant throughout the early Woodland period, and social structures and trade continued to develop. Around 500 AD, corn cultivation began, later expanding to include beans and squash around 1100 AD. Increased agriculture enabled more permanent, fortified, and significantly larger settlements. In southern Ontario during the 1400s, the population of some villages numbered in the thousands, with longhouses that could house over a hundred people. Around this time, large-scale warfare began in southern Ontario, leading to the emergence of Iroquoian groups, including the Neutral Confederacy, Erie and Wendat. Groups in northern Ontario were primarily Algonquian and included the Ojibwe, who traded with the Iroquois.
Many ethnocultural groups emerged and came to exist on the lands of Ontario: the Algonquins, Mississaugas, Ojibway, Cree, Odawa, Pottowatomi, and Iroquois.