‘Really positive’ spring ahead
Mild conditions have set in early this year and a forecaster with the Weather Network expects that to continue into the spring.
“March is a month where you’re going to see some back and forth, you’re going to have days like (Thursday), (Friday) that are going to still feel very wintry … but I think by the time we get into April we should be able to put the vast majority of the cold air behind us,” said meteorologist Michael Carter. “I certainly can’t rule out a cool day, even a few flakes of snow deeper into the season, but for the most part I think the worst of winter that we experienced this year really was in December and we’ve kind of, for the most part, backed out of it with a few notable exceptions.”
As it does with all four seasons, the Weather Network released its spring outlook this week.
With winter winding down, which started cold in December but has been milder than normal in January and especially with a record-warm February in many locations across southern Ontario, the Weather Network is looking at what March, April and May should bring.
Carter said because spring is a transitional season there are built-in weather changes due to climatology.
“We’re moving out of the cool season into the warm season, so there’s a big trend that’s going to take place on any given spring, regardless of what the overall global weather patterns are like,” he said.
Carter said the average high temperatures in Niagara in March are around 5.5C, 12.4C in April and 19.5C in May.
“The overall story this year I think is really positive for the spring,” he said. “Certainly it’s going to be a really nice contrast to last spring.”
Carter said last spring started with mild temperatures in March, but then April and May produced cool, gloomy, “almost winter-like weather” deep into the spring season.
“It kind of left a lot of folks asking where the spring was. This year we really don’t see that being a problem,” he said.
Carter said Niagara residents can expect a “little bit of weather whiplash” in March where temperatures might be below normal one day and above normal the next.
“Then as we get deeper into the season, we really do expect in April and especially May, those above normal temperatures to really set in for good and have some persistent, long-lasting … warmer than normal temperatures really building in through the latter part of the spring,” he said.
“Overall I think a great story for spring for the Niagara peninsula.”