It looks like the groundhog might have been a bit off when he predicted an early start to spring, with Environment Canada calling for a mix of snow and showers in the forecast for Simcoe County.
The first day of spring is Monday, but Geoff Coulson, an Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist, said it’s a good idea to hold onto winter jackets and snow tires a bit longer.
“I think a lot of folks may be hoping we’ve seen the last of the snow,” Coulson said.
“Unfortunately, I’m looking at the forecast for the coming days — a chance of flurries or mixed showers and flurries in the forecast for part of the workweek this week, before we get a little bit milder on Thursday.
“And that’s just the showers that we have to concern ourselves with,” he continued. “There could be yet another storm system coming up from the American southwest that could spread general snowfall to south-central Ontario for the day on Saturday.”
Depending on how the week progresses, Coulson warns there may be a winter weather travel advisory should the cold weather continue.
Temperatures will stay around seasonal, with 4 C as a daytime high and overnight low around -6 C.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Coulson said there could be a mix of snow and rain in the Barrie and Simcoe County region.
On Thursday, Coulson said it could be as high as 8 C with the chance of showers.
“This is still very much a time of year where we can see both very warm air masses moving up from the American shelf and getting some pretty warm air. But it’s also a time of year where those Arctic air masses can still come down from northern Ontario and give us either mixed precipitation or snow with the forecast to finish this off for March and start us off for April,” he said.
Reflecting on how winter went, Coulson said it was a generally mild winter, with average snowfall amounts around 203 centimetres versus the long-term average of 265 centimetres.
“We are likely going to add to our current totals, but we’ll still likely probably come in somewhat below the long-term average for snowfalls, so the milder winter led to a little bit more in the way of rain and snow, and that really seems to be the way things have shaped up for this winter.”