Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
Despite my subjective feelings about the month, February was actually warmer than the 20th century averages. The mean temperature was 1.9C above what we’d expect, continuing the trend of warmer winters.
The lowest temperature was -18.3C on the 8th and the high was 5.7C on the 28th. As usual, it was appreciably colder away from the lake with the airport registering -22.1C. Despite the lake being ice covered, warmth from the water below still adds a little to the temperature.
Precipitation was higher than normal as anyone clearing snow will know. The average is 38mm of water content; this February we got nearly 50mm. It snowed on 11 days and even when it wasn’t snowing the winds quickly erased snow clearing efforts. The first two weeks were especially breezy with gusts often exceeding 60 km/hr.
The Province as a whole shared our experience with slightly warmer than historical temperatures, but with some wild fluctuations. Oshawa, for example, saw a maximum daily temperature of -15C on the 7th. Then, by the middle of the month several areas set high temperature records, with Atikokan at +7.6C and Vaughan at +8.1C.
The same applied to snowfall. Snow-on-the-ground measurements were at record high values for much of Ontario. Major road closures occurred in the southwest on the 6th, where the OPP had to resort to snowmobiles to rescue stranded and crashed victims. Hwy 402 was closed along with many other roads in the London/Sarnia area. This was repeated on the 10th with many road closures here in Bruce County. February 21 saw an ice storm in the GTA which resulted in Hwy 404, 407 and 7 being closed with multiple cars in ditches.
None of this should come as a surprise. Climate change models have been predicting that warmer winters would bring more major storms and accompanying precipitation. The statistics bear them out.
I am indebted to Environment and Climate Change Canada for much of the non-local data I report each month.
