Thank goodness! It’s spring at last!
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but phew! What a winter!
Cold as it was last night, temperatures where I live should climb above freezing by this afternoon, the first day of spring.
I have a woodland ramble scheduled for later today and one of my fellow exercise buffs claims she’ll be there in shorts and sunscreen. (Big talk, show me the pale, bare legs!)
As for who saw it coming, a lead forecaster for Environment Canada had to eat crow, according to the CBC:
The Farmers’ Almanac rarely bests the scientists at Environment Canada when it comes to weather forecasting, but it sure did this year.
Senior meteorologist Dave Phillips consulted the skies and computers in November and December, back when the world was green, and predicted a “little milder and more rain than snow” kind of winter for Eastern Canada.
Score a win for the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which Wikipedia says “…has been published continuously since 1792, making it the oldest continuously published periodical in North America.[1]“
Last September, this is how the Old Farmer’s Almanac called it:
“We’re looking at the T-Rex of winters,” Jack Burnett, editor of the Old Farmer’s Almanac, said on CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday. [9/18/14]
“It’s going to be colder, it’s going to be snowier … it’s not pretty.”
According to the almanac, central Canada, in particular, is expected to experience winter’s nasty bite.
“From Calgary to Quebec, we’re going to be up to our neck,” Burnett said.
As it turned out, that grim fate went double for places like Boston and Atlantic Canada, which are still seeing snow storms. Indeed, it was the coldest February on record in many, many places, including Canada.
It was a good winter for multi-tasking, as with the Halifax TV reporter who live-tweeted his efforts to help a woman in labor who was stuck in a snow bank. (Don’t worry, it ended well.)
It was also a good winter to carry your own emergency blubber supply. As “Bubba” discovered. The 18-year-old cat from Prince Edward Island went out for a pee and didn’t come back. For 40 days. Bubba got stranded under a snowed in deck. (This ended well too.)
PEI, for one, isn’t out of the woods yet, weather-wise. That province may see 6 inches of snow and/or an inch of rain this weekend as those residents wait for more proof spring hasn’t forgotten them.
When it comes to predicting whole seasons (will this be a dry summer? what kind of winter might be in store?) do you think anyone really knows in advance? Which source (if any) do you tend to trust?
Meanwhile, I was reducing the snowbanks beside my driveway yesterday and I actually spied the wee green tips of spring bulbs in the flower bed closest to the house. Yes, indeed. Spring has sprung. I am ready!
