With winterâs icy grip taking hold of much of the country this week, many Canadians are asking if weâll be in for a doozy this season. But David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada, believes that we wonât be experiencing anything too abnormal.
âWe still are waiting a couple weeks before we issue our winter forecast, but the early look⌠[suggests] weâre going to be colder than last year,â Phillips told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel on Friday. âI donât think it necessarily will be colder than normal, but itâs⌠certainly going to feel more like winter and weâll have more consistency.â
This week, a blast of Arctic air saw numbing temperatures set 28 records in British Columbia and 14 in the Prairies. On Thursday, Regina experienced a bitter minus 28 degrees Celsius -- the coldest Nov. 9 in the city since records began to be collected in 1884. In Ottawa, temperatures even plummeted a staggering 19 degrees, from a comfortable seven degrees Celsius to a chilly minus 13 by the dayâs end.
âWe just came through one of the warmest September, Octobers on record⌠so itâs almost like a slap in the face,â Phillips said. âWeâve already seen this kind of weather that you get in the dead of winter -- January, February -- and here itâs occurring in the first half of [November].â
Last year, much of the country experienced an unusually mild winter -- something that wonât be repeated this season, despite our âearly start to winter-like weather,â Phillips said.
âPeople are thinking, âUh-oh, is this the pattern, the personality of the coming winter?ââ Phillips said.
âNo, this is just a little bit of a teaser, a little heads up to say, âHey get your snow tires on and think about winter.ââ
Those who love winter wonât be disappointed, Phillips added. And those whoâd rather hibernate and wait for spring wonât suffer too much either.
âThere will be something for everybody,â Phillips said. âI donât think itâs going to be a brutal one, like with a lot of polar vortices and that⌠I think weâll be able to handle anything that Mother Nature throws our way.â