Halifax was founded in 1749 as a British naval counterweight to French Louisbourg, when governor Edward Cornwallis landed with roughly 1,176 settlers on a harbour peninsula on Canada's Atlantic coast. On 6 December 1917, a collision between two ships in the harbour caused the Halifax Explosion, which killed at least 1,782 people and was the largest human-made blast on record until the atomic bomb. Many victims of the Titanic, which sank closer to Halifax than to any other major port, are buried in the city's Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Seven degree-granting institutions, including Dalhousie University, give a city of under 500,000 an outsized student population.
Halifax has real seasons: summer sits around 18°C and winter around -1°C.
It rains all year — about 1416 mm in total, from 156 mm in December down to 94 mm in August — so there is no dry stretch to aim for.
The air stays clean through the year.
Days stretch to about 15.4 hours of light in June and shrink to 8.6 in December — something to weigh if you work to a fixed timezone.
No month in Halifax matches what you're after, so come for the place rather than the weather. Expect fast internet (340 Mbps) and a high cost of living (about €2350 a month).
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