The coming winter months should be warmer than usual, but should also provide enough cold days to appease the winter lovers, according to a senior climatologist with Environment Canada.
David Phillips is predicting an “up and down winter,” meaning short stretches of cold mixed with short stretches of more mild weather.
“I think there will be something for everybody this winter,” Phillips told CTV News Channel on Monday. “For those who love winter - and there are a few out there - and those that are not liking winter.”
Phillips says, with patches of milder weather mixed in with the harsher days, it can make getting through the season easier for those who aren’t exactly fans of the season.
“Instead of one long hoary night and winter from Halloween until Easter, it becomes more agreeable,” he said.
Canadians had it easy last winter, when it turned out to be the seventh-warmest in the past 70 years. Phillips says this year’s should be colder than last, but still be warmer than normal when looking at the big picture.
“We’re not cancelling winter,” he said. “Nobody’s done that in the second coldest country in the world.”
“It’s not going to be Miami of the North.”
Environment Canada is predicting a warmer than normal winter for much of the Ontario, Quebec and the East Coast. The Pacific coast of British Columbia is the only region where it predicts temperatures will be colder than normal.
Despite the warmer weather, there could be more snow than normal ahead.
Environment Canada is predicting higher than normal precipitation levels for the southern Prairies and for much of Ontario. Only northern British Columbia and southern Yukon is expected to have lower than normal precipitation levels.
The Farmers’ Almanac have similar predictions to Environment Canada. They are expecting “wild temperature and precipitation swings” in central Canada, drier conditions in British Columbia and snowy conditions in Quebec and the Maritimes.
In the next couple weeks, Phillips says people can expect to see the ground freeze. And that means, when it falls, some snow will hang around.
As a result, he anticipates a white Christmas for most of the country. He says it’s a near certainty that the Prairies will be white by the 25th, and “would bet” on a white Christmas from Windsor, Ont. to Halifax.
Snow around Christmas can help people feel that “Christmas spirit” and can help the economy during this time, but Phillips says the cheeriness doesn’t typically last long.
“I think that people will be in a good frame of mind, but certainly, once Boxing Day rolls around, those people that don’t like winter will say ‘get it out of here, we don’t want it anymore.’”
