Goodbye February storms, hello beautiful March
Posted Mar 1, 2011 05:12:32 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Maritimers are digging out of yet another winter blast today – but there’s hope that the end is in sight.
Environment Canada has released its long-range forecast, promising a warmer-than-average spring in Halifax.
Senior climatologist Dave Phillips says eastern Nova Scotia residents can look forward to a beautiful March, April and May.
“[It shows] a little bit of eastern Nunavut, and most of Newfoundland, the island of Newfoundland, and half of Nova Scotia as being warmer than normal,” said Phillips.
Environment Canada’s outlook suggests three-quarters of the country will have colder than seasonal temperatures, specifically British Columbia, the prairies, most of Ontario, the Yukon and the North West Territories.
“And the rest of the country, that is western Nova Scotia, all of New Brunswick, most of southern Quebec and Labrador and, as I said, eastern Ontario as being near normal [temperatures],” said Phillips.
News 95.7 meteorologist Richard Zurawski says it’s nice to know eastern Nova Scotia is probably going to have a normal spring and get rid of some of the snow on the ground.
“I think most folks are ready for it,” said Zurawski. “The outlook for March, April, May looks like we’re getting into a normal spring instead of the colder stuff that we’ve had and the heavy precipitation that we’ve had.”
But Zurawski explains long-range forecasts are not very accurate and are treated as guidelines by most meteorologists.
A deep-low pressure system moved in Monday afternoon, dropping about 25 millimeters of snow and rain in metro. The zero-degree temperature mean pedestrians were pelted by sleet and drivers had to contend with alternating slushy and icy roads. Winds were clocked at 70 kilometers per hour, causing whiteout conditions on the roads.
Zurawski says the temperature is due to drop to -4 degrees today and any wet left of roads, sidewalks and driveways will freeze.
