Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popu ...

is a city in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. It is a suburb of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. The city is situated in the

Regional Municipality of Peel The Regional Municipality of Peel (informally Peel Region or Region of Peel, also formerly Peel County) is a regional municipality in the Greater Toronto Area, Southern Ontario, Canada. It consists of three municipalities to the west and northwe ...

and covers of land, fronting of shoreline on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. Mississauga is bounded by Oakville and Milton to the west/southwest,

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it t ...

to the north, Toronto to the east, and Lake Ontario to the south/south-east.

Halton Hills ) , image_map = , mapsize = 200px , map_caption = , pushpin_map = CAN ON Halton#Canada Southern Ontario , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , subdivision_type ...

borders Mississauga's north-west corner. With the exception of the southeast border with Toronto (

Etobicoke Creek Etobicoke Creek is a river in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. It is a tributary of Lake Ontario and runs from Caledon to southern Etobicoke, part of the City of Toronto. The creek is within the jurisdiction of the Toronto and Regio ...

), Mississauga shares a land border with all of the previous mentioned municipalities. Two major river valleys feed into the lake. The

Credit River The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario, which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment near Orangeville and Caledon East to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately . The total le ...

is by far the longest with the heaviest flow. It divides the western side of Mississauga from the central/eastern portions and enters the lake at the

Port Credit Port Credit is a neighbourhood in the south-central part of the City of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, located at the mouth of the Credit River on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Its main intersection is Hurontario Street and Lakeshore Road ...

harbour west of

Hurontario Street Hurontario Street is a roadway running in Ontario, Canada between Lake Ontario at Mississauga and Lake Huron's Georgian Bay at Collingwood. Within Peel Region, it is a major urban thoroughfare within the cities of Mississauga and Brampton, wh ...

. The indented, mostly forested valley was inhabited by First Nation peoples long before European exploration of the area. The valley is protected and maintained by the Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVCA).

forms part of the eastern border of Mississauga with the City of Toronto as far north as

Eglinton Avenue Eglinton Avenue is a major east–west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga in the Canadian province of Ontario. The street begins at Highway 407 (but does not interchange with the tollway) at the western limits of Mississauga, as a ...

. North of there it passes through the western infield area of

Toronto Pearson International Airport Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surr ...

. There have been two aviation accidents, in 1978 and 2005, where aircraft overshot the runway and slid into the Etobicoke creek banks. In 1954, heavy flooding resulted in some homes along the riverbank being swept into the lake after heavy rains from

Hurricane Hazel Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest, second costliest, and most intense hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed at least 469 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and Sout ...

. Since that storm, houses are no longer constructed along this floodplain. This creek and its tributaries are administered by the

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is a conservation authority in southern Ontario, Canada. It owns about of land in the Toronto region, and it employs more than 400 full-time employees and coordinates more than 3,000 volunt ...

(TRCA). Most land in Mississauga drains to either of the two main river systems, with the exception of the smaller Mary Fix and Cooksville creeks which run roughly through the centre of Mississauga, entering the lake east of Hurontario St. Some small streams and reservoirs are part of the Sixteen Mile Creek system in the far northwest corner of the city, but these drain toward the lake in neighbouring Milton and Oakville. The shoreline of former

Glacial Lake Iroquois Glacial Lake Iroquois was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago. The lake was essentially an enlargement of the present Lake Ontario that formed because the St. Lawrence River down ...

roughly follows the

Dundas Street Dundas Street is a major historic arterial road in Ontario, Canada. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western suburbs and several cities in southwestern Ontario. Three provincial highways— 2, 5, and 99—followed long section ...

alignment. It is not noticeable in most places but is very prominent in the vicinity of the Dundas Street and Mavis Road intersection, where the ancient shoreline drops below, affording a clear view of downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario on clear days from the ridge. The land in Mississauga in general slopes gradually downward from almost 190 metres (623 ft) above sea level in some northern spots to Lake Ontario (76 m/249 ft ASL), a 110-metre (361 ft) difference over an averaged 15 kilometres (9 mi) distance. Apart from the Credit River valley and Iroquois shoreline, the only noticeable hills in Mississauga are actually part of the former Britannia Landfill near Britannia Road and Terry Fox Way.

Neighbourhoods

As defined by the Canadian census, the following areas are neighbourhoods in Mississauga. * Applewood * Central Erin Mills *

Churchill Meadows Churchill Meadows is a suburban residential neighbourhood located in the westernmost area of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. In 2016, Churchill Meadows had a population of 47,800. Postal codes in this area are L5M, and area codes, are 905, and 289. ...

City Centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

* Clarkson- Lorne Park *

Cooksville Cooksville may refer to: Places ;Canada * Cooksville (Mississauga), a neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada **Cooksville GO Station, a station in the GO Transit network located in the neighbourhood **Mississauga East—Cooksville, an electo ...

* Creditview *

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cove ...

* East Credit *

Erin Mills Erin Mills is a large suburban district in the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, approximately west of Downtown Toronto. Starting in the 1970s, Erin Mills was developed as a "new town" by the Cadillac Fairview Corporation on over of farmla ...

* Erindale * Fairview * Hurontario * Lakeview * Lisgar * Malton * Meadowvale * Meadowvale Village * Mineola * Mississauga Valley *

* Rathwood *

Sheridan Sheridan may refer to: People Surname *Sheridan (surname) *Philip Sheridan (1831–1888), U.S. Army general after whom the Sheridan tank is named *Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), Irish playwright (''The Rivals''), poet and politician ...

Streetsville Streetsville (pop. 47,327) is a neighbourhood located in the northwestern corner of the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on the Credit River. Although Streetsville occupies the west and east banks of the river, the majority is located on the ...

Climate

The climate of Mississauga is officially represented by Pearson International Airport but conditions can differ depending on location: fog tends to be more common along the lakeshore and in the Credit River Valley at certain times of year, particularly during the autumn. The southwestern side of the city (Clarkson) is usually significantly milder in winter and also on summer nights than northern areas which include the airport, while lakeshore areas particularly from Port Credit east through Lakeview are cooler on hot summer days and it can be noticeably cooler on sunny spring days when there is a lake breeze. During snowfalls when temperatures hover close to freezing, northern parts of the city, such as around Derry Road away from warmer Lake Ontario, tend to get more snow than the southern parts because of colder temperatures. The reverse occurs when a strong storm approaches from the south kicking up

lake effect snow Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water. The lower layer of air, heated up by the lake water, picks up water vapor from the lake and rises up through ...

, bringing higher snowfall totals to south Mississauga. Summer thunderstorms are common, most are not severe but can occasionally bring violent winds. The last known tornado to cause significant damage touched down on July 7, 1985, when an F1 rated tornado struck an industrial park in the Meadowvale area, heavily damaging some buildings and some parked tractor trailers. A relatively strong tornado tore a path across Toronto Township (the precursor municipality to Mississauga) on June 24, 1923, cutting a swath from present-day Meadowvale to near Cooksville, killing four people and causing massive property damage in a time when most of the area was still rural farmland dotted with fruit orchards.

Statistics

References

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