What does the warm winter mean for spring in Ottawa?
CTV
Spring officially arrives at 11:06 p.m. today. What can Ottawa expect this year?
Spring officially arrives at 11:06 p.m. today. What can Ottawa expect this year?
After one of the warmest winters on record, including the first without a single day where the temperature reached -20 C or below, Environment and Climate Change Canada is predicting a warmer than average spring.
But senior climatologist David Phillips told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron on Monday that the season is going to start out cold.
"One would guess that, hey, it looks like a warmer than normal spring, but this is the time of the year of the duking out between winter wanting to hold on and summer wanting to get a foothold and we're going to have to play with that for the next week or so," he explained.
Ottawa has already seen warmer than average temperatures this month, with seven days of highs above 10 C, four of which set temperature records. The average high for this time of year is between 2 and 3 C. The forecast for this coming week includes highs around that seasonal mark or slightly colder with a chance of flurries mid-week.
"This coming week looks certainly different than the early summer weather we got last week," said Phillips. "We're going to have to deal with some snow; not bury you snow, just kind of flurries, teasers, nuisance kind of snow. You can't ski on it or use it for anything. Freezing temperatures, highs of -2 rather than double-digit temperatures last week. So, put up with that, and then April, May and June, our forecasts are saying warmer than normal."
The average mean temperature for March 2024 as of the 17th is 3.4 C, more than five degrees warmer than the average mean for the first 17 days of March 2023. February was more than four degrees warmer than average.
With the number of homeless people in Saskatoon at an unprecedented high, it’s no surprise people are looking for places to warm up.
The next chapter of the Lemay Forest saga has unfolded as the sounds of trees coming down could be heard Monday.
The stormy weather in the forecast for B.C.'s South Coast is already disrupting many Christmas Day travel plans.
A break in, theft, and continued property damage has led to the boarding up of the Palace Theatre over the Christmas holidays.
Police in Nova Scotia are investigating after two deaths in Truro, N.S., over the weekend have been ruled homicides.
Calgary police shut down Glenmore Trail overnight following a crash between a car and a crane truck.
Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal has awarded members of an Indigenous family in North Bay $15,000 each after it ruled they were victims of discrimination.
A heavy snowfall has guaranteed much of Quebec a white Christmas, but it has also sent cars skidding off the province's roads during the busy holiday travel period.
For many of the women attending My Sister’s Place (MSP) in London, Ont. the holidays are a difficult time.
RCMP in New Brunswick are investigating after a business in Janeville was broken into and a number of items were stolen.
Canada appears to be barrelling toward a spring election now that the NDP is vowing to vote down the government early next year -- whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stays on or not.