Blame Canada. We are just finishing the warmest dryest winter on record.

I've been enjoying the warm sunny weather for the last 3 weeks...

Last few days have been esp warm.

Ummm... what's your idea of warm?

19C....67F is warm for early March, hope you are enjoying it like we have the last few days!!!

When the snow and ice start to melt, ever so slowly...

When the snow on the roof of your Jeep causes heavy condensation on the inside of the roof, soaking all the papers you left in the front seat.

When you can finally get to the firewood pile, but you don't need to any more.

When you drive to work without a cold weather survival kit in the front seat of the car.

But yeah, Environment Canada said that this area is pretty much done with winter. Woo hoo, time to start thinking about taking off the ice radials !!

More than you want to know about our weather.....



Winter is officially over, according to Environment Canada. And it was one of the warmest and driest across the country since 1948.

The national average temperature for this past winter was 4 degrees Celsius above normal.

The previous record was set in the winter of 2005/2006 when it was 3.9 degrees Celsius above normal. The winter of 1971/1972 remains the coldest in Environment Canada’s records – at 3.9 degrees below normal.

This winter is also the driest out of the 63 years for which records have been kept, with precipitation across the country down to 22 per cent below normal. The previous driest winter was 1977/1978, when precipitation was 20.1 per cent below normal.

This year, parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario had 60 per cent less precipitation than normal.

It seems winter across Canada — which is defined by Environment Canada as December, January and February — has warmed up by about 2.5 degrees since 1948, according to a recent report put out by the weather agency looking at the history of temperature and precipitation across the country.

It’s enough to make climatologist David Phillips shake his head in amazement. “It’s quite spectacular,” he said in analyzing the data from the report. “We’ve never seen a winter like this.”

What’s more, the seasons have all been slightly warmer annually — about 1.4 degrees warmer over the past 63 years. The warmer temperatures are most definitely a “sea change,” said Phillips.

Records across Canada were shattered from B.C. to Baffin Island to the Great Lakes. “In the Arctic it was the warmest winter on record,” said Phillips.

The report by Environment Canada also found that of the 10 warmest years, four have occurred within the last decade. Eleven of the last 20 winters are listed among the warmest. Across the GTA there was a snow drought this year – with the total amount of snow down about 40 per cent.

This year’s warmer and drier winter season could have dramatic long-term implications, Phillips said, especially if the drought-like warm conditions continue through the spring and summer, bringing on a decline in crops, an increase in forest fires, possible insect infestations and perhaps a water shortage. It all sounds a bit biblical, chuckles Phillips, like pestilence descending on the land.

“This winter was a double whammy. We define winter by temperature and snow. And in both counts it was the year without winter. Winter took a holiday. We’re a winter people. And we’re still waiting for winter.”

What’s becoming quite clear, Phillips said, is Canadian winters are becoming quite different. Phillips points to the weather in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. during the Olympics as an example of this year’s balmier temperatures. “Canadians from coast to coast are shocked,” he said. The Inuit and Atlantic Canadians are equally surprised by the weather in their region, he said.

The reason for this year’s warmer and drier winter is El Nino, a shift in the winds and ocean currents in the Pacific, Phillips said.

But what’s also at play, Phillips said, is the thinning of the polar ice cap. “In the last three to four years the ice in the Arctic has thinned,” he said. “And that means the refrigeration at the top of the world is not cooling like it did in the past.”

Florida had the coldest winter in over 30 years, and I hated every minute of it....

Surprise!

We had even more freezing temperatures after the story was published.

We've been getting into the 50s here the last few weeks, 10-15 degrees above normal.

I note that my preferred golf course normally opens around tax day (April 15th), but the snow is gone from everywhere but the biggest plow-made piles and I'm expecting they'll be opening three weeks early....

Mark ? Is that you ? You look... different.

Here in the North coast, we hit 70 degrees yesterday and are in the upper 60s today. Sunshine both days.

We had a gorgeous day before yesterday, even got 18 holes of golf in but man did the skies ever open up yesterday and today, over 3.5" of rain yesterday and probably more than that today ... we went from record breaking cold temperatures over the winter to a month of March record breaking rainfall.

Strange days indeed.

Presently at a reasonable 57 here in Calgary Unfortunately summer will be over and Winter will kick in once again.

Rick. I was thinking about you when I started the thread. Its hard to believe you guys have had it so cold while we were so toasty warm all winter...

Rick? You golf? Next trip, man....next trip!