Canada records warmest winter in history

Queenie was still very very cold, so she's a bit concerned about doing another one... in case...

Mike Oliveira
The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Canada is in the closing stretch of its warmest winter in recorded history, another upswing in an apparent warming trend that supports the notion that global warming is upon us, an Environment Canada climatologist said Monday.

Between December and February, the country was 3.9 degrees above normal - the warmest winter season since temperatures were first recorded in 1948.

On Monday, Environment Canada called the winter of 2005-2006 the kind of season that comes along once every 100 years.

It was obvious early on that it would smash records, said climatologist Bob Whitewood.

"We saw it coming from mid-January on, that we were seeing something quite remarkable," Whitewood said. "January was a very, very warm month . . . and then February pretty much locked it."

It was especially balmy in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, where temperatures were six to eight degrees above normal, but every part of the country got a mild winter.

Winter hasn't been so warm since 1987, and this year's temperatures broke that record by 0.9 degrees.

"That's quite remarkable," Whitewood said. "We normally talk about tenths of degrees and this was almost one full degree past the previous record."

Environment Canada will spend the next year studying weather data because there's no conclusive explanation for the mild winter, he added.

Ocean temperatures can often be a factor, but there's been no significant El Nino effect - warm ocean waters creating abnormal weather conditions - this year.

While January's temperatures can be somewhat explained by the displacement of cold air that's usually parked over Hudson Bay, it still can't account for the overall record-trouncing temperatures and the trend they back up, Whitewood said.

"We historically have seen (an increasing) trend in winter-time temperatures of about two degrees (overall) over the last 60 years, so we're certainly moving towards warmer and warmer winters as time progresses."

Whitewood said the last 10 winters have been warmer than normal and along with this winter reflect what could be explained as global warming.

"When you talk about this kind of trend, it's sitting in very well with what our models would forecast for climate-change scenarios," he said.

"We're obviously a signatory to Kyoto so we are definitely recognizing it as a concern."

Former prime minister Jean Chretien signed on to the so-called Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse-gas reductions in 1997, committing Canada to a six per cent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has declared those targets unattainable and promised a so-called made-in-Canada plan on greenhouse-gas emissions.

A recent international project called the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study suggested global warming has already caused irreparable damage and has left polar ice melting at a rate of about 74,000 square kilometres each year - an area about the size of Lake Superior - and has been for the last 30 years.

About 120 scientists from 11 countries were involved in the Canadian-led research project and said there should be a focus in Canada and internationally on coping with the reality of global warming and minimizing the damage.

Whitewood said studying this year's winter will add more data to contribute to the debate on global warming.

"It'll give us more information on whether this is just a warm winter, or whether or not we're seeing some sort of trend."

'That's quite remarkable. We normally talk about tenths of degrees and this was almost one full degree past the previous record.'