February has started just like one would expect a Canadian winter to behave – cold and snowy.
The average temperature for the first week of the month was -11.2 degrees Celsius, a full two degrees below the normal for February of -9.2 C. There were four nights when the nighttime low dipped below -25 C, which is a cold snap for the area that doesn’t happen as often as it used to. While the rest of the month will be milder overall, the daytime temperatures will be well below normal for most of the rest of the month, at around -5 C.
The snow continued to accumulate, with 27 centimetres falling in the past week. This melted down to 27 millimetres of water which is slightly above normal on a prorated basis. Snow depth, depending on how much snow has been blown away by the wind, is now about 30 cm (12”). A substantive snowstorm is forecast for the middle of the month with 30-40 cm in the offing over the February 15-16 weekend.
The winter days are slowly getting longer, with sunrise now at about 7:05 am, and sunset stretching out to almost 5:15 pm.