It bothers me every time I visit Orange County, California: out of habit I collect the papers, cans, and bottles when tidying but there’s no recycling program! After years of landfill-reduction programs, I’ve been trained.
This is one internal recycling program for a Government of Ontario office building. As well as the recycling, there are small bins where employees can dump food scraps for the composting program.
Donwatcher reports on the new management plan for Crothers’ Woods in the Don Valley.
February 2007 — by Jack Saunders, Communications Advisor
C-c-c-cold enough for you?
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(CCNMatthews - March 1, 2007) - The above-normal temperatures that have been reported since November of last year have now been replaced with exceptionally cold temperatures. Across the province, the mean temperatures for the month have now dropped in a range of two to five degrees below normal.
Snowfall was also noteworthy this month. The Great Lakes, with most of the surface as open water in the early part of the month, was responsible for high snow reports in some areas. The typical snowbelt areas, and atypically Hamilton, had high accumulations - in the case of Wiarton, it was record breaking. Locations outside these snowbelt areas had near-normal or below-normal amounts.
Overall, the trend of precipitation was drier than normal across the province. The colder temperatures reduced the amount of available moisture in these cases.
Severe Weather
Lake-effect snows were the big story to start off the month. On February 1 and 2, a very cold flow of air from the southwest caused snow bands to set up off of Georgian Bay. These bands ended up dumping approximately 40 centimetres of snow in the North Bay area during these two days. On February 2, a series of snow bands from the southwest moved onshore near the Cobourg area and caused near-whiteout conditions that may have been an important factor in a fatal crash on Highway 401.
From February 4-7, the winds shifted and blew the cold air in from the northwest. This shifted snowsquall activity to the more traditional snowbelt areas to the lee of Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. During this four-day period, Sault Ste Marie received a little more than 70 centimetres of snow and the Barrie area almost 60 centimetres. As well, in less than 12 hours during this timeframe, the Owen Sound area picked up approximately 50 centimetres of fresh snow.
St. Valentine’s Day turned out to be more for shovelers than for lovers, especially around the western end of Lake Ontario. A well-developed storm system that moved south of the lower Great Lakes combined with strong lake-effect snow bands generated with a wind from the northeast to give the Hamilton area an official 46 centimetres. This all occurred just between the evening of February 13 and the morning of February 14. However, unofficial estimates of the snow in areas around Hamilton and Burlington were upwards of 60 centimetres, with drifts well over a metre in height. Other parts of Southern Ontario which were not impacted by the off-lake snow received amounts between 10 and 15 centimetres.
(… more at link.)
Back home, the wind chills are -22 C and the storm warnings are out.
In Newport Beach, it’s mild, with hundreds of birds feeding in the estuary. This is one of the three best places to watch birds in California.
