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Toronto Winter Remains Light On Snow

From time to time, the Synergy Merchant Services Blog discusses the crazy weather that is often a topic of conservation at water coolers across Canada. For example, who knew that the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia would require snow to be flown in to be dropped onto Cypress Mountain for the alpine skiing events?

Well apparently, the residents of Vancouver knew. Known to be among the warmest cities in Canada, Vancouver was anything but wintery over the past few weeks. Meanwhile, the rest of the world appears to be clinging on to its steadfast belief that the Great White North actually is perpetually covered in white year round.

And while the west coast is not as akin to getting snow as much as the rest of the nation is, southern Ontario has surprisingly also received very little snowfall this winter. Now that March is here, many Torontonians are eagerly anticipating the end of a winter where winter never really came, save for a few relatively light snowfalls.

In fact, just yesterday Charlene Close of 680News.com reported that there was only 48 centimetres of snowfall in Toronto in the month of February. This is significantly less that than the 91 centimetres of snow that the GTA is accustomed to this time of year. The number is even more bewildering considering that last year at this time, 148 centimetres was recorded.

Environment Canada senior climatologist, David Phillips believes that most Torontonians are thinking that this next-to-snowless winter is just too good to be true. Said Phillips: “I know that it strikes fear into Torontonians because they think oh my gosh if it’s going to begin lamb-like it’s probably going to end lion-like. There’s no creedence at all to that kind of weather lore. sometimes it can “baa” in and “baa” out or the vice versa.”

That being said, Toronto residents are cautioned to not do away with their shovels and heavy winter jackets just yet. Phillips notes that chances are, the worst is yet to come as it relates to impending snowfalls.

He advises: “About 20 per cent of our annual snowfall occurs after the first of March. So don’t write the obituary on winter. We haven’t seen the end of the snowflakes quite yet. This week looks pretty tame, nothing to inconvenience us but what’s beyond that, there are storms not even born yet that will probably come our way.”

And although Phillips does predict that no major snow is expected for the rest of the week, the temperatures will remain cold. Even still, The Weather Network’s website indicates that the city will see temperatures around the freezing mark for most of the week. For a Toronto winter at the beginning of March, that is still relatively warm.

So where did all the snow go? Unless you’re a snowman-making child who loves the outdoors, chances are that you’re saying, “who cares?”. With less than a month to go for the official end of winter to come, it would appear as if this will be Toronto’s ‘unsnowiest’ winter in many years.

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