Mild winter caused by El Niño will soon give in to colder days
The warm weather, courtesy of El Niño, will be rarer as the temperature drops, allowing for more snowfall this season.
El Niño is defined by Environment Canada’s website as a warm surface air current usually from the Pacific Ocean that occurs about every two to seven years. It affects the weather around the globe, bringing warm temperatures to western and central Canada in late December.
Southern Ontario has seen only 15 centimetres of snow, compared to the average of 66 centimetres.
Additionally, there have only been 13 days below -10 degrees this season when the average is 22, according to Environment Canada.
“It’s hard to imagine it being a year where we only end up with about 30 centimetres of snow,” said Environment Canada senior meteorologist David Phillips.
Despite the El Niño currently in effect, Phillips said that with the lack of snow storms Ontario has been experiencing, the weather will begin to cool down as Valentine’s Day approaches.
Temperatures have been running well above normal this season, introducing weather changes that have never been seen before.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bob Smerbeck in Pennsylvania said that due to El Niño, December has seen record breaking temperatures of warmth across Southern Ontario.
Smerbeck said he has already seen a few people walking around Penn State College, where he works, in brimmed hats and Hawaiian t-shirts. “Some people act like it’s summer time…now we’ve gotten into February and things are gonna change, we’re gonna get cold again.”
He stated that there will be chances for snow this month as cold patterns will start to form for a more “winter” type of cold.
Environment Canada’s website stated El Niño was also a factor in 1982 to ’83 and 1997 to ‘98. The latter years made the Canadian Prairies warmer than it was in Mexico City.
But this year is different.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Brett Anderson, also in Pennsylvania, said unlike previous experiences, El Niño has probably already peaked this year.
“There’s always times the weather can take control,” said Anderson.
He said there will probably be another shot of cold air patterns coming right at the end of February and into early March.
The temperature is predicted to go through smaller changes as the season cools down and El Niño continues to progress through both Canada and the United States.
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