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Question Your Weather Nostalgia


SkiDooStu

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I would encourage any bored weather nerd (like myself) to visit Environment Canada's climate database here:

http://climat.meteo.gc.ca/advanceSearch/searchHistoricData_e.html?timeframe=1&Prov=XX&StationID=9999&Year=2010&Month=1&Day=24

Go to "search by station name" and pick a year for January. I selected 1967 cause it's the last time the leafs won the cup, and several other dates in the 70's and 80's

What I found is that it is extremely rare to not have at least 10-15 days during january-february where it doesn't heat up (much warmer than it has so far this january) and to have rain that washes away all the snow..

I also found that so far, our average temperature in january of 2010 has been -2.2C. Many of these "nostaglic" years boast average temperatures of 2C, 3C etc.

Anyway, I realize that there were some blockbuster winters in the 60's and 70's but it is worth keeping in mind that "snowmobiler's luck" has been around for decades and probably will never change.

Looking ahead, looks like a cold pattern heading into February according to Brett Anderson, Larry Cosgrove and Joe Bastardi. So far this year, their forecasting has been rather accurate.

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Besides, lots of snow does not mean it is a snowmobiler's paradise. The big story that everyone likes to tell around here is how the snowbanks were high enough to reach the tops of the telephone polls in the 1970s. Well, it was only a few years ago we experienced the same. 15 foot high banks everywhere you looked; and those were the short ones. But it was generally considered a poor year for snowmobiling. What happened was that all of the snow blew into the snowbanks along the roads, while the fields themselves remained bare.

I'm sure in 30 years we will be able to tell the youngins about how harsh our winters were, with snow up as high as the telephone polls. But let's face it, it really wasn't any worse than having to walk to school, uphill both ways. :P

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  • 1 month later...

Well

I just worked out the average high temperature for february for London

-1.47

normal 30 year mean is -1

So, in london both january and february were colder than average in terms of high temperatures.. Just quite dry with the exception of snow belt areas.

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Just heard on the news that on a NATIONAL scale we've had the warmest, dryest winter since records have been kept.

I know that up here it hasn't been a terribly warm winter, cold enough to keep snow, but it has been extremely dry. All of the snow that was here we got early on in the season, and it was just cold enough to keep it around for awhile.

As soon as things warmed up it was gone in a flash though.

I'm hoping for one more quick storm so I can blast some fields, but it may not come....we'll see, fingers crossed! haha

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Environment Canada announced yesterday this was the driest and warmest winter in over 60 years. The driest part I can believe, but it is hard to swallow that it was also the warmest? Remember October was wet and cold, and November was warmer and wet, then December was wet but with mostly rain. I guess it is the fact that we had a chilly wet Fall overall that made it seem like a cold Winter for the most part. Around the city it was warmer for sure, yet there was still some stretches of really cold days and nights up north. Oh well...time to move on with Spring activities.

Brett Anderson was also totally wrong with his February predictions of normal snowfall in the snowbelt regions. That simply did not happen.

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I'm sure in 30 years we will be able to tell the youngins about how harsh our winters were, with snow up as high as the telephone polls. But let's face it, it really wasn't any worse than having to walk to school, uphill both ways. :P

Dont forget we couldnt afford shoes so we duct taped phone books to our feet!

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I'm sure in 30 years we will be able to tell the youngins about how harsh our winters were, with snow up as high as the telephone polls. But let's face it, it really wasn't any worse than having to walk to school, uphill both ways. tongue.gif

Dont forget we couldnt afford shoes so we duct taped phone books to our feet!

We couldn't afford a phone. And duct tape hadn't been invented.

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After climate gate I don't believe anything that NOAA, environment canada or the met office says... I rely on reading the data myself

The North was very warm this year due to the high pressure there that emptied all the cold south...Causing many of the US states to have an extremely cold winter compared to the average.

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The flag in front of my office has been blowing from the south since Hurricane Katryna. IMO the prevailing winds have shifted.

Haven't read about this theory anywhere else (and can't listen to radio reports through aluminum foil skullcap), but it's a troubling observation.

Anyone else notice a shift in prevailing winds at home or cottage?

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The flag in front of my office has been blowing from the south since Hurricane Katryna. IMO the prevailing winds have shifted.

Haven't read about this theory anywhere else (and can't listen to radio reports through aluminum foil skullcap), but it's a troubling observation.

Anyone else notice a shift in prevailing winds at home or cottage?

?????

Sorry man I cant' see how that is the case.... The very fact that we have lake effect snow suggests otherwise does it not?? Jan/Feb this year we had a persistent Jet Stream that kept all preevailing winds from NW or in some cases NNW which gave us a ton of snow in mt brydges

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The flag in front of my office has been blowing from the south since Hurricane Katryna. IMO the prevailing winds have shifted.

Haven't read about this theory anywhere else (and can't listen to radio reports through aluminum foil skullcap), but it's a troubling observation.

Anyone else notice a shift in prevailing winds at home or cottage?

?????

Sorry man I cant' see how that is the case.... The very fact that we have lake effect snow suggests otherwise does it not?? Jan/Feb this year we had a persistent Jet Stream that kept all preevailing winds from NW or in some cases NNW which gave us a ton of snow in mt brydges

But his office is in Toronto. Where, there was a heavy snowfall over a couple of days in December and then one or two days of snow a couple of weeks ago. Pretty amazing. No wonder they are calling it a dry winter.

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The flag in front of my office has been blowing from the south since Hurricane Katryna. IMO the prevailing winds have shifted.

Haven't read about this theory anywhere else (and can't listen to radio reports through aluminum foil skullcap), but it's a troubling observation.

Anyone else notice a shift in prevailing winds at home or cottage?

?????

Sorry man I cant' see how that is the case.... The very fact that we have lake effect snow suggests otherwise does it not?? Jan/Feb this year we had a persistent Jet Stream that kept all preevailing winds from NW or in some cases NNW which gave us a ton of snow in mt brydges

My observation is that of a layperson. Folks can quote jetstreams, etc. - I have simply observed that the wind is from the south more often than in the past. It's bringing warmer air from the south into Ontario.

That same observation extends to our cottage (Six Mile Lake, north of Honey Harbour). We face south. A forest is to the north. We LOVE a NW wind, since embers fly out over the water. Those winds are few and far between. Once again, the wind is coming at us from the south.

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Once again, the wind is coming at us from the south.

The direction of the wind during the transition of the season will remain the prevailing wind for the remainder of that season. I usually try to take note at the beginning of each winter because a NW wind is typically quite favourable for us. I have noticed over the past 10-15 years that southernly winds are much more common than any other direction at that time. Not sure how this applies to historical records beyond the last decade, but maybe southern winds have always been more common in this region of the world?

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