'Record' heat set to scorch Ontario and Quebec, as snow covers western Canada
Calgary was buried in an unseasonably large amount of snow this week, but the rest of the country – except for the Prairies – is safe for the moment.
At least, so says Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.
Yahoo Canada News asked the weather expert if the influx of snow in the west means a doom-and-gloom winter ahead for the rest of the country. Though there has been some debate over the potentially ‘teeth-chattering’ winter predicted ahead, Anderson isn’t convinced.
“I wouldn’t say that, no,” said Anderson. “There are signs that after the 15th of October, this extreme pattern (in the west) will finally begin to break.”
“Normally Calgary gets their first snow late September and in October they usually average about 10 cm in Calgary for the month of October,” explained Anderson.
Earlier this week some parts of Calgary saw up to 45 cm of snow.
“Usually in a given year, their average is about 130 cm so they’ve already had about a quarter of what they normally get in their full season, so thats pretty impressive,” said Anderson.
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“This is certainly very unusual. This was a record snowfall for any day in October in Calgary. The previous record was 29.7 cm back in 1914. Cold weather is going to continue across much of the Prairie area into next week with more opportunities for snow.”
Warm vibes for Eastern Canada
“Fall continues to be delayed in the east and winter has certainly come in early across the west,” said Anderson. “Hopefully things will be back to normal mid-month.”
As for that delayed fall in the east, it looks like there’s going to be one last blast of summer weather. This isn’t unexpected: Earlier in this season, The Weather Network also predicted an extended summer for Canada’s eastern residents.
“…Early next week, we could see temperatures in much of Ontario, southern Quebec…from 6 C to 11 C above normal with record highs,” said Anderson. “It’s going to feel like late August, early September across the area. Going to be record warmth.”
According to Yahoo Canada Weather, on Tuesday, Toronto will be 24 C, Ottawa will be 25 C and Montreal will be 23 C.
PHOTOS: The wildest sights from Calgary’s October snowstorm
But, don’t get too comfortable. Winter is coming, after all.
“As we get to around the 15th, it looks like finally this pattern breaks down and I think we’ll start to trend back to normal October weather in Ontario and Quebec.
“As we go out into the west, it looks like things will look milder across extreme western Canada also around mid month or so.”
Hang in there, everyone!