On the first full day of spring on Tuesday, it certainly felt like the appropriate season, but that weather didn’t stick around for long.
Environment Canada senior meteorologist Dave Phillips explains spring is a fickle season.
“Astronomically it’s here, but nobody told nature about it. And this is the kind of back and forth, the kind of tug o’ war that goes on this time of the year, particularly early spring. Winter wants to keep going and spring wants to get a foothold,” he said.
What makes it a little different this year is we had some spring-like temperatures both in January and February. He notes there were actually more melting days than freezing days in February.
“People were of the mind that spring had sprung. That’s why March, which has turned out to be one of the coldest months of the winter so far, has been a real slap in the face.”
According to the agency’s models, we can expect a warmer than normal spring for April, May and early June, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of the snow.
“There are surprises. You can’t rule out another wallop, winter’s last hurrah. I don’t think we’ve seen it yet.”
For example, on Tuesday we saw temperatures four degrees higher than normal, but by the evening it felt like the dead of winter again with minus-13 and flurries. Twelve to 15 per cent of our annual snowfall can still fall this time of the year in Waterloo Region, he notes.
He said this week would be a typical spring week with some warm and some cold days.
“You’re going to see temperatures that are going to be four degrees warmer than normal, but eight degrees colder than normal, so in a way maple syrup kind of weather, except instead of the plus-five, minus-five, it’ll be a little bit higher at both ends.”
In April last year we had almost 20 centimetres of snow, where a normal year we’d only see seven.
As for how winter shaped up, he says he was calling for a milder than normal winter – not as warm as 2015 though – and he was right.
“I must say, even I was surprised that we saw in many parts of southern Ontario the warmest February on record.”
December was the toughest month, where we saw more than double the amount of snow we’d normally get then.
He says this area was actually pretty sheltered from the worst of winter considering the weather in Atlantic Canada, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and even in parts of Manitoba earlier this month.
“So be patient. Don’t put away the snow shovel, don’t take your snow tires off quite yet. April is the time for doing that. I always say ‘til April’s dead, change not a thread. You get your spring garments out next to your winter garments and they compete for the front of the clothes closet, and that’s just typically what spring is about.”
