Believe it or not, it’s been a ‘warmer than normal’ winter
Despite the recent bitter cold snap and a huge snowstorm Tuesday, the first half of this winter has actually been much milder than usual.
Environment Canada reported that 1014 cm of snow fell in Toronto on Tuesday.
David Phillips, a senior climatologist for Environment Canada, said this winter in Toronto has still been a warm one compared with previous winters.
“We can’t really say if it’s been record warm, winter is not over yet.”
“What we do know is certainly the first half of winter has been very mild. In Toronto, November had temperatures that were on average for the whole month three degrees warmer than normal, December two degrees warmer than normal. We saw January was three degrees warmer than normal,” Phillips said.
But in February, Phillips said, the temperature has been almost three degrees cooler than normal.
The city has experienced cold temperatures the past three weeks, leading up to this week’s snowstorm, Phillips noted. He also pointed out that winter can be unpredictable, with snow continuing into April some years — last spring cold temperatures lasted well into that month.
Tuesday’s snow forced the closing of many schools in the GTA that were set to reopen this week after an extended lockdown.
An Environment Canada National Severe Weather spokesperson said Toronto has seen 24.6 cm in the month of February so far.
Compare that with last February, when we saw 53.4 cm. of snow for the whole month. The long-term average snowfall for February is 24 cm.
We’re also down year-over-year if we compare January this year and last year. In January 2020, 30.4 cm. of snow fell compared with just 20 cm. in January 2021.