Wide Open To Storm Fury Canada's Garden of the Gulf is surrounded by sea, lying between the Northumberland Strait on the south and west and the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north and east. With the oceanic influence, the onset of the seasons is delayed several weeks. Winters are rambunctious but, on the whole, milder than in most parts of Canada. Spring is late and cool.
Summer is modest and breezy.
As for fall, well, Islanders will tell you they favour this season most of all, except when it involves the occasional brush with a dying Atlantic hurricane. The island's gently rolling terrain, which generally does not rise any higher than 50 m above sea-level, presents no formidable obstacles to the weather systems that traverse the region. The sea is a much more important climate control, with no community farther than 20 km from the seashore. The seas about the Island function like a gigantic heat pump, drawing warmth from the waters in the fall and early winter and cooling the air for a greater part of the spring and summer seasons. From January to early April, when the gulf and straits become ice covered,the heat pump shuts down and the Island becomes as continental as the interior of New Brunswick.