Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
February started out as a continuation of January’s relatively mild temperatures with lots of sunshine. One wondered if Spring was in the air but the 5th of the month proved that it wasn’t. From then until the 18th we got abundant snow and our coldest weather. The coldest night was the 12th when the mercury shrank to -12.8°C. The high that day only reached -11.3°C. However, that cold snap was nowhere near the minus twenties we saw in Februarys past.
In an interesting reversal of weather roles, we reached a high of -3.9°C on Valentines Day while Texas was getting -11°C in their worst winter storm in years. Unfortunately for many, they are simply not prepared for frigid weather, so widespread power cuts and frozen pipes resulted from temperatures we take for granted. I’m a little ashamed to admit to some schadenfreude; Texas is one of the worst emitters of climate-change gasses and of course the fossil fuel king of the USA.
Meanwhile, back in Tobermory we headed into milder weather (by February standards) with highs in the last week in plus territory with lots of thawing. The last day saw the month’s high of +6.8°C. Overall, the month was just 0.9°C above normal, which actually makes it a colder February than we’ve been experiencing in recent years.
Winds were about what we’d expect with a predominant direction of NE with the highest gust of 58 kms/hr. Precipitation is difficult to measure in winter. I’d guess we had about 60 cms of snow depth; in water terms it equated to 61 mm. which is a bit higher than normal.
It has been reported that the snow pack around Lake Superior is somewhat reduced this year so far. This means our record high lake water levels might decline a bit this summer.
March has started out with springlike weather on the 1st. Let’s hope it lasts.
