Winter will be milder than last year, but may bring more snow: Environment Canada

Autumn was milder than normal, with temperatures as many as five degrees higher than usual, particularly through October. And winter may bring more of the same.

Winter arrives at 10:58 this morning

“Our models are saying that January, February, and March look like normal to warmer than normal and wetter. But my emphasis would be on the normal and with a few shots of cold. So if you enjoy the recreation, then go play safely and make sure the ice is thick enough to go ice fishing. But don’t procrastinate. Because you know that it can disappear very quickly,” said Environment Canada’s chief climatologist, David Phillips.

There will be some cold moments, said Phillips, but the models are not indicating extensive bouts of it.

As for snow, lake effect will be a factor, “The lakes are wide open, they’re much warmer, they didn’t cool off much during the fall. And so, therefore, there is that potential for giving us, and we’ve had a lot of lake effect, a lot of days with it.”

But we’ve also had wind, which has blown those systems through quickly, not allowing them to lock in and bury us under mountains of snow, as we’ve seen in other years.

No need to dream of a white Christmas

For the Christmas period, Phillips told Barrie 360 it’s going to be a little milder to kind of seasonable temperatures, some days maybe to three degrees warmer than normal. Other days, two degrees cooler than normal.

But it will be white, “we’ve got a few centimetres now, and this week that dirty snow at the end of the driveway will be freshened up by several days of flurries. We see a shot of snow maybe on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day will be almost the perfect Christmas Day with snow on the ground and snow in the air. I think Barrie and Simcoe County will look like that beautiful Christmas card.”