CORNWALL – The cool weather and snow may have you thinking, what happened to spring?
But Doug Gillham, meteorologist with The Weather Network, tells Cornwall Newswatch people need to put everything in perspective.
“It’s important to keep in mind that the spring forecast is for a three month period, as a whole, and we’re not even half way at this point. Spring is a season of transition. You’re never going to have a spring or a fall where you’re going to lock into the same pattern for the full season,” Gillham said.
The Weather Network spring outlook from February had called for a drier, warmer-than-normal season across Eastern Ontario.
The meteorologist said it’s difficult – if not impossible – to capture in February “the magnitude of what’s happened” in the first week-and-a-half in April.
“What most people have kind of forgotten at this point, because it’s been scoured from our memory by of the severity of what we’ve had to start April, is that March was significantly above seasonal,” he said.
Gillham said the region is transitioning into a pattern that will bring us near to above seasonal temperatures – sunshine and highs in the upper teens are slated for the later half of this week.
He said it’s normal to have some “wild swings” in temperature. “No doubt, the beginning of April has been somewhat dramatic but it was really set up by the fact it had been so warm previous to that,” Gillham said.
“We’re really going to see a change in the pattern. This weekend will actually get to above-seasonal temperatures and we’ll finally have a chance to dry out. It will feel like spring. In fact it will feel like early May,” Gillham said.
“As we look ahead to the rest of spring…we don’t think the downside on the temperatures will be anything like what we saw to start the month (April)…the down periods will likely be shorter and not nearly as well below-seasonal as what we just saw,” Gillham explained.
“It’s not shorts and t-shirt weather all the way to summer but it’s now safe to take off the snow tires.”