Stormy winter predicted for Niagara
Mounting snow banks. Marathon shovelling sessions. Delayed commutes.
Niagara residents could be in store for a particularly stormy winter season, according to The Weather Network.
“It’s going to be an active winter — an abundance of storms, excess, above- normal precipitation, and that could mean anything from snow to ice to rain or any combination of all of the above,” said meteorologist Michael Carter.
He said the cause will be a frequent storm track out of Colorado, up through the Great Lakes.
“If there’s a good side to the story for southern Ontario it’s that we don’t expect the really bitter cold to settle in this year. We expect that the most prolonged, persistent bitter cold is going to be back to our west, across central Canada … but we certainly will see some shots of colder air throughout the season, as we typically do, leading to temperatures overall of near normal. That’s going to be against a background of plenty of snow, potential for ice, all of that sort of stuff.”
Carter said the average daytime high in December is around 2.7C, – 0.4 C in January, and 1.3 C in February.
An average December sees about 32 centimetres of snow, 47.7 in January and 32.2 in February.
While Niagara residents can expect more snow than normal this winter, the actual amounts will depend on where they’re living.
“Those numbers will vary a little bit, especially when we get around the Great Lakes because some folks are a little more prone to lake effect than others, so your exact location, where you are relative to the escarpment, all of that sort of plays a role in exactly ( how much snow people will get).”
Carter said historically the coldest winters are not the snowiest, and vice versa.
“When it gets really bitterly cold the snow often will back off a bit, but in the winters, you only need cold enough, it just needs to be below that freezing mark, and if you’re running around normal for temperatures and you have excess moisture, that’s a sure sign that snowy days are on the way.”
Carter said southern Ontario has had a “few lucky winters” in recent years, and “this may be the year that we have to pay the piper.”
A classic Canadian winter is also expected for much of Ontario.
In addition to above- average snowfall, there is also the threat for freezing rain at times.
A stormy weather pattern could bring the Greater Toronto Area its snowiest winter in a decade. There are some similarities in the global weather pattern between this year and the winter of 2007- 08, which brought Pearson airport its snowiest winter on record.