WATCH: Global’s Chief Meteorologist Anthony Farnell tells you what you can expect this spring
There is no denying the fact it’s been a very cold and long winter for Ontario.
Across southern Ontario, it’s been the coldest it’s been in a decade. Northwestern Ontario, however, is even worse off: it’s seen its coldest winter since the frigid late 1970s.
The Great Lakes are nearly 90 per cent frozen over. This is the most ice cover the lakes have seen in a decade, and if things continue, the all-time record of 94.7 per cent ice cover, set in 1979, could be broken.
Colder than normal temperatures have left more of a snow pack this year and could cause flooding if there’s a rapid melt or heavy rain.
But spring is close at hand, and here’s what we can expect.
Unfortunately, March got off to an extremely cold start. While some moderation is expected, the month will be a cold one from the Prairie provinces towards the Great Lakes. There will also be several more chances of snow before winter finally lets go in early April.
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March will be the fifth consecutive month below normal across southern Ontario. This could mean a record late ice melt on the Great Lakes which will likely delay any significant warming well into April. Because of this, I’m forecasting another month of below-normal temperatures, but not to the extremes that we see in March.
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The pattern should return to a more typical one come May, and that’s when I see temperatures returning to seasonal across the province.
The continued cold is delaying the maple syrup season along with a potential delay to the start of the growing season. Grape crops have been adversely affected by the cold, but there is some positive out of all this. Some invasive insects and even mosquitoes have had trouble weathering the cold.
I am quite concerned for the spring snow-melt and flood season. The snow pack is very large for this time of season, and a sudden warm-up or heavy rainstorm would cause major problems. Ontario cottage country was hit hard by flooding late last spring and a similar situation could unfold this year with the late melt.
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