The winter that never was vs. the winter that never ends

Watch the video above: The cold weather is helping some retail outlets. Sean O’Shea reports. 

TORONTO – Remember last winter and how cold it was? How about the winter before that?

Chances are you can’t remember the last time Toronto has seen such cold and so much snow for so long. That’s because the city hasn’t really been this cold in a while.

But it’s really the winter of 2011-2012 that likely sticks in your mind. That has been called “the winter that wasn’t.” The average snowfall was far below normal; temperatures well above the norm. In March, the city even hit an incredible high of 26 C.

For fun (or just to be cruel), let’s compare the winters of 2011-2012 and 2013-2014.

READ MORE: Will this be Canada’s coldest winter?

This winter, of course, has been a series of ice, snow, cold, cold, and then some more cold. And the worst part is that Environment Canada is forecasting March to be below normal for most of Canada, including Ontario. In fact, they have nothing but bad news to share: their three-month forecast is calling for below normal temperatures from March straight through to May.

So how bad has this weather been? A call into Environment Canada’s Senior Climatologist David Phillips revealed that he has gone AWOL:

“Hello. You’ve reached David Phillips’s voicemail. I’m not in the office today. In fact I’m not going to be in for a while. Given the weather prospects for March, I’ve decided to disappear — to get out of town, get out of country. Mind you, not witness protection program, but with all that winter weather rage out there, I thought it would be best to come back in a different season. You could leave a message if you like, but I’m not likely to answer it for a while. I do hope you get the weather you want for the rest of the winter. Bye for now.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Hello. You've reached David Phillips's voicemail. I'm not in the office today. In fact I'm not going to be in for a while. Given the weather prospects for March, I've decided to disappear — to get out of town, get out of country. Mind you, not witness protection program, but with all that winter weather rage out there, I thought it would be best to come back in a different season. You could leave a message if you like, but I'm not likely to answer it for a while. I do hope you get the weather you want for the rest of the winter. Bye for now."

As if we needed any proof that this winter has been brutal, we’ve lost the man who knows it all.