St. John's

Sister cities

• Coro
• Maracay
• Ílhavo
• Waterford

History

St. John's was used by fishermen setting up seasonal camps in the early 1500s. Sebastian Cabot declared in a handwritten Latin text in his original 1545 map that St. John's earned its name when he and his father, the Venetian explorer John Cabot, in the service of England, became the first Europeans to sail into the harbour, on the morning of 24 June 1494 (per British and French historians, in 1497), the feast day of Saint John the Baptist. A series of expeditions to St. John's by Portuguese from the Azores took place in the early 16th century, and by 1540, French, Spanish and Portuguese ships crossed the Atlantic annually to fish the waters off the Avalon Peninsula. In the Basque Country, it is a common belief the name of St. John's was given by Basque fishermen because the bay of St. John's is very similar to the Bay of Pasaia in the Basque Country, where one of the fishing towns is called St. John (in Spanish, San Juan, and in Basque, Donibane). On 5 August 1583, an English Sea Dog, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, claimed the area as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I. There was no permanent population, however, and Gilbert was lost at sea during his return voyage, thereby ending any immediate plans for settlement. In 1627, William Payne, called St. John's "the principal prime and chief lot in all the whole country". Sometime after 1630, the town of St. John's was established as a permanent community. Before this, English fishermen were expressly forbidden by the English government, at the urging of the West Country fishing industry, to establish permanent settlements along the English-controlled coast. The population grew slowly in the 17th century: St. John's was Newfoundland's largest settlement when English naval officers began to…

Geography

St. John's is along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, on the northeast of the Avalon Peninsula in southeast Newfoundland. The city is North America's most easterly city, excluding Greenland. Its downtown area lies to the west and north of St. John's Harbour, and the rest of the city expands from the downtown to the north, south, east and west. The city covers a total of (larger than Montreal, Quebec), but the majority of its area remains covered by undeveloped woods. Coniferous trees such as black spruce, white spruce, and balsam fir dominate the native vegetation. The largest deciduous tree is white birch; species of lesser stature include alder, cherry and mountain ash. Of introduced tree species, sycamore maple is most abundant and Norway maple is common. Blue spruce, common horsechestnut, European beech and littleleaf linden are among the other non-native species grown. St. John's has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with smaller seasonal variation than normal for the latitude, which is due to Gulf Stream moderation. Mean temperatures range from in February to in August, Of major Canadian cities, St. John's is the foggiest (124 days) and windiest ( average speed). Precipitation is frequent and often heavy, falling year-round. On average, summer is the driest season, with only occasional thunderstorm activity. June is the driest month, averaging of precipitation. The wettest months are from October to January, with December the wettest single month, with of precipitation on average. and April 2017. On 17 January 2020, St. John's declared a state of emergency due to a snowstorm that brought an estimated —a one-day snowfall record for St. John's—and hurricane force winds up to . The following day, the Canadian Army was called in to aid snow removal.…

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  18,294
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  16,121
• American herring gull, Smithsonian Gull

  Larus smithsonianus Coues, 1862 · Aves
  14,283
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  11,602
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,370
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,228
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,980
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,970

Most recent

• M 3.3 — 2009-04-29
  28 km SW of Bay Roberts, Canada