It’s Spring!

Spring is here! It’s not as cool as it looks, but I’m going out in light-coloured, light-weight, spring clothing. The very air is mild and sensuous.

more cat pictures

In Revelstoke

Revelstoke, B.C., is entirely surrounded by mountains except for a couple of passes. It’s an inland rain forest, humid in summer and snowy in winter. They had at least 12 feet (3.5 m) of snow this year. There’s still snow in drifts here and there, waterfalls coming off the mountain, and stretches of road marked “Avalanche Area: do not stop.” The mountains are amazing and beautiful - sometimes like solid clouds, sometimes hidden in fog, sometimes monumental and brooding.

I’m going to B.C.

I’m off to Kelowna and Revelstoke. It looks as if the weather will be cool.

Cloud shapes

The mind makes images…

More LOLcats!

Ontario weather strikes

We had a downburst yesterday afternoon that took two major branches off the neighbour’s tree, blocking our lane. I was out but the pattern of destruction seemed suspiciously like a minor tornado. Branches ended up all over the place, including opposite to the direction of fall. (Of course they might have just bounced.) And the grass was flattened. A neighbour said that it sounded like a train going by.

Several nearby streets were also blocked. That happened about 4:00 p.m. and when the electricity crews got to it our power was cut for several hours. It came back on about 4:00 a.m.

Cleanup crews are busy. I can hear the wood-chippers out there now.

Crazy weather

Yesterday, and for a few days before that, we had a premature taste of Toronto summer: it was hot, hazy, humid, and polluted. We had a heat alert before the end of May and several smog alert days. It was about 28 degrees C and felt like about 34, with what must have been 100% humidity. Finally, it went down to about 18 in the evening. By this morning, a whole other weather system had blown in. it was cool in the morning and the temperature dropped to 8 C in the afternoon. There was a cool, damp, raw wind from the east. It’s now 7 (45 F) and feels colder. Here’s the second half of that cooling trend:

The small image at the top shows the reason. A cold air mass from the North has pushed out a hot air mass from the South. The other weather we get is moderate, blowing straight from the West.

Environment Canada’s weather review for Ontario

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.)

Canada’s first weatherman, Percy Sattzman, dies

Percy Saltzman, who brought the idea of dynamic weather reporting to television and made it happen, died at age 91 after a brief illness. Mr. Saltzman received the Order of Canada in 2003. He was an interesting character. Read about him.