What Is The Weather Today II (No Mercury Jockeying)

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Zepfancouver

Yeah, I saw that Aurora Viewline for Tonight and Tomorrow Night forecast yesterday, I'm looking to capture one in Vancouver, one day 🤞

I was hoping for clear skies, since we are doing out first winter night bike ride of the season and it would have been good visuals.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Some places like the Cobequid Mountains in NS and the Cape Breton Highlands are going to get a lot more, even up to 40-50 cm in Cape Breton. The situation in Cape Breton will be compounded by winds up to 90 km/he. They've issued an orange alert for them.

But.. this is a lot like mountain pass areas anywhere in Canada, a lot of which can have snow for most of the year. Most of the CB highlands doesn't even have road access.

Looks like it was mostly or entirely a rain event for much of NS.

[someone123]

Some data on white Christmas % and how it's changed over time:
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-cli.../historical-christmas-snowfall-data.html

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by someone123

But.. this is a lot like mountain pass areas anywhere in Canada, a lot of which can have snow for most of the year. Most of the CB highlands doesn't even have road access.

Looks like it was mostly or entirely a rain event for much of NS.

I know you like to present Halifax and NS in the very best light possible (the only weather station of record should be Halifax Dockyard, etc)

It was a rain event in southwestern NS and along the peninsular Atlantic coastline, including Halifax, but most of the rest of the province saw snow including all of northern NS, Cape Breton and the northern Annapolis valley.

I saw a photo earlier this morning of a long traffic jam on the Cobequid Pass. I could try and find in again and post it here if you like.

[giallo]

Grey and chilly. High of 6C.

[Nicko999]

Went up to -2C with a wind chill of -8 late this afternoon. It kept warming and it is 1C right now. Only a 2 or 3 hours above freezing then it nose dive.

Low of -12C (wind chill of -14). First sub -10C of the season. Absolutely brutal.

The warmspot was Sable Island, NS at 13.4C. Only place in Canada above 10C.

Warmest low were Solander Island and Cumshewa Island, BC at 7.6C.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by someone123

Some data on white Christmas % and how it's changed over time:
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-cli.../historical-christmas-snowfall-data.html

Some interesting notes.

Victoria actually went up (to 16%) if only looking at the last three decades. I expected this, as there was about a five year period where the coldest weather of the winter seemed to perfectly land on the few days surrounding Christmas. The Victoria airport also gets snow squalls whenever arctic outflows occur, much more so than Victoria proper.

YVR on the other hand (which doesn't get such snow squalls) fell to only an 8% chance.

Penticton stayed consistent at 32% (which is the third lowest in the country for the locations shown, tied with Halifax).

Kelowna went down considerably, and Kamloops also fell. Both are around a 50/50 shot now.

BC also operates at a bit of a handy cap since Christmas is very close to BC's (especially south coastal BC'S) pole of cold, which is the earliest in the country. I wouldn't be surprised if the most likely occurrence of snow in Victoria is right around Christmas (it has certainly seemed that way to my anicdotale observations over the decades).

[Bishop2047]

https://www.ventusky.com/snow-cover-map/total#p=46.37;-64.80;6

Sharing for some that have not run into this. Love this site. See the bar on the lefthand side for Temps, Radar, Snow cover, Wind speed, Wave height etc.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Bishop2047

https://www.ventusky.com/snow-cover-map/total#p=46.37;-64.80;6

Sharing for some that have not run into this. Love this site. See the bar on the lefthand side for Temps, Radar, Snow cover, Wind speed, Wave height etc.

Excellent resource. Thanks!

It is as I said. Nova Scotia is snow covered except for the southwest and along the immediate Atlantic coastline. Even in Halifax, if you drive to Sackville, you are probably getting into snow cover.

Again, as I said, the snow cover is greatest in the Caledonia Highlands, Cobequid Mountains and the Cape Breton Highlands - up to 30 cm or so.

According to news reports from yesterday, there was a seven hour line-up to cross the Cobequid Pass. Video showed a long line of hundreds of tractor trailers.

At present it is -3C and partly cloudy in Moncton. It will get as warm as +2C this afternoon with flurries or rain showers. Depending on where the bands may set up, we might see 1-5 cm of snow, No major storms in the seven day forecast, but it will be cold with daytime highs as low as -7C

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Excellent resource. Thanks!

It is as I said. Nova Scotia is snow covered except for the southwest and along the immediate Atlantic coastline. Even in Halifax, if you drive to Sackville, you are probably getting into snow cover.

Again, as I said, the snow cover is greatest in the Caledonia Highlands, Cobequid Mountains and the Cape Breton Highlands - up to 30 cm or so.

According to news reports from yesterday, there was a seven hour line-up to cross the Cobequid Pass. Video showed a long line of hundreds of tractor trailers.

At present it is -3C and partly cloudy in Moncton. It will get as warm as +2C this afternoon with flurries or rain showers. Depending on where the bands may set up, we might see 1-5 cm of snow, No major storms in the seven day forecast, but it will be cold with daytime highs as low as -7C

I don't think anyone (someone) was in any way critical of what it was you said, but rather it was what was unsaid and warranted mentioning which is that much of Nova Scotia experienced a rain or mostly rain event. TWN sent their guy to Amherst to find sufficient snow for drama and then proceeded to use general terms such as 'the maritimes....etc.' in their weather story. It's annoying. Your Halifax/Lower Sackville reference prompted me to google the distance between the two locations vs. the distance between Vancouver and Grouse Mountain. According to google it's 20 km vs. 12.1 km with the lesser distance being Vancouver to Grouse Mountain.

In the centre of Halifax at 'that' weather station it's 6.4 c. At YHZ it's 3 c. It's cloudy and spity and the vortex is on our doorstep.

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

The mention of Sable Island above by Nicko got me googling again and I thought I'd share... the tip of southwestern NS mainland is 190 km further south than Sable Island which is a greater north south distance than the north south distance between the southern most point of NS vs Point Pelee in southwestern ON which is 188.7 km.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Arrdeeharharharbour

I don't think anyone (someone) was in any way critical of what it was you said, but rather it was what was unsaid and warranted mentioning which is that much of Nova Scotia experienced a rain or mostly rain event. TWN sent their guy to Amherst to find sufficient snow for drama and then proceeded to use general terms such as 'the maritimes....etc.' in their weather story. It's annoying. Your Halifax/Lower Sackville reference prompted me to google the distance between the two locations vs. the distance between Vancouver and Grouse Mountain. According to google it's 20 km vs. 12.1 km with the lesser distance being Vancouver to Grouse Mountain.

In the centre of Halifax at 'that' weather station it's 6.4 c. At YHZ it's 3 c. It's cloudy and spity and the vortex is on our doorstep.

Nova Scotia weather in not the same as Halifax weather.

I know this for a fact. I'm originally from PEI, but spent nine years in Halifax going to university. I met my wife in Halifax. Her family is from Antigonish. I have spent a lot of time driving around northern NS, to and from PEI, and to my in=laws place. I know northern NS weather and road conditions probably far better than most Haligonians, who rarely venture any further north than the airport.

I am well aware of what winter conditions can be like in NS. Some Haligonians seem to think that the weather there is nearly like tropical Vancouver. I am aware of a different reality.

BTW, while you guys had a seven hour line-up at the Cobequid Pass, we didn't have anything like that here. We has a few semis off the road, but no transportation paralysis.

Southwestern NS does have winter weather more like southern Maine or coastal Massachusetts, and this does extend up the Atlantic coastline as far as Halifax, but, this is not the majority of NS. It's like trying to extrapolate the weather conditions in the lower mainland of BC and make it relevant to Prince George or Fort St. John.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Arrdeeharharharbour

I don't think anyone (someone) was in any way critical of what it was you said, but rather it was what was unsaid and warranted mentioning which is that much of Nova Scotia experienced a rain or mostly rain event. TWN sent their guy to Amherst to find sufficient snow for drama and then proceeded to use general terms such as 'the maritimes....etc.' in their weather story. It's annoying.

Yeah, not sure what to say about it. My comment is accurate. I was actually looking a NS webcams. Here's the Grand Pre webcam right now, about an hour north of Halifax:


novascotiawebcams.com

But that other website indicates this is 10 cm+ of snow on the ground.

Anyway, not here to argue. I don't think it's weird to talk about the weather in the largest city in a province when reporting on a weather event hitting said province. I mostly steer clear of this thread these days.

[someone123]

I was surprised at the snow depth in Saint John NB being 3 cm on Christmas in the recent period compared to 2 in Halifax, Victoria, or Vancouver. I would imagine most Canadians would group Saint John and probably Halifax as well with, say, Ottawa.

In the Maritimes the coldest months are January and February and in the warmer areas with more recent climate change December is becoming marginal as a real "Canadian" winter month. It is more like rainy late fall weather with the occasional blip of cold which doesn't happen at all some years.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by someone123

In the Maritimes the coldest months are January and February and in the warmer areas with more recent climate change December is becoming marginal as a real "Canadian" winter month. It is more like rainy late fall weather with the occasional blip of cold which doesn't happen at all some years.

I would agree with this.

White Christmases are hit or miss in Moncton over the last decade. We can sometimes get into early January before a big snowfall. This winter is a bit different due t the polar vortex, Winter arrived in Moncton this year two days ago. I think it will last.

[zoomer]

Metro-One summed up the Victoria situation well as have others for their cities and weather patterns. Being downtown it's rare to see snow but go out up the peninsula by the airport or the mountains in the western communities and it's a bit more common or likely to stick.

According to the Victoria Wikipedia entry:

"Victoria averages just 26 cm (10 in) of snow annually, about half that of Vancouver. Roughly one third of winters see virtually no snow, with less than 5 cm (2.0 in) falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. Victoria averages just two or three days per year with at least 5 cm (2.0 in) of snow on the ground. Every few decades Victoria receives very large snowfalls including the record breaking 100 cm (39 in) of snow that fell in December 1996. That amount places Victoria 3rd for biggest snowfall among major cities in Canada."

So, it's all or nothing I guess, luckily more nothing. That Environment Canada page shows for the 34 year period from 1955-1988 there were only 2 White Christmases and in the 35.year span from 1989 to 2023 a total of 7, which is surprising as I can only remember 2 or 3 in that period, but again I live downtown. We do seem to get more Arctic outflows that ever before, a couple a year and usually the worst ones are in February.

What I want to know is what was the one year Winnipeg had a green Christmas?! It must have felt like Christmas was cancelled and Scrooge took over the town.

[zoomer]

By the way - if you're in Vancouver we have a Christmas special for SSP members:



Thanks for the photo Metro-One

[Tancredi]

A question to everyone

In the notes of this link indicated by someone123
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-cli.../historical-christmas-snowfall-data.html

it says; 'Perfect Christmas: snow on the ground of 2 cm or more on Christmas morning and snow in the air sometime Christmas day, i.e., a measurable snowfall on Christmas based on period 1955-2007'. Can you explain the exact meaning? I didn't understand some aspects: 1) To be indicated as a 'Perfect Christmas', must Christmas day have both a snow accumulation of at least 2 cm on the ground and snowfall during the same day? 2) If there is at least 2 cm of snow on the ground on Christmas Day but it doesn't snow (meaning the 2 cm fell in the days before Christmas), is it not considered a 'Perfect Christmas'? 3) If it snows on Christmas Day and there is snow on the ground but less than 2 cm, is it not considered a 'Perfect Christmas'? 4) So, to give an example, considering that in the period 1955-2007 Ottawa recorded 35% of years with snow, does this mean that these are all years in which on Christmas Day: 1) There was snowfall 2) There was at least 2 cm of snow on the ground. Is this correct or is there something I didn't understand (also because I may not grasp the nuances in the English language)?

[someone123]

They have 2 levels

White Christmas: >= 2 cm of snow on ground at 7 a.m.
Perfect Christmas: White Christmas + some new snow falls on Christmas Day

If it's neither of these it's a "Green Christmas" (might be more accurate to call this a "Brown Christmas" or "Grey Christmas"... ).

[harls]

Originally Posted by zoomer

What I want to know is what was the one year Winnipeg had a green Christmas?! It must have felt like Christmas was cancelled and Scrooge took over the town.

In 1997, I remember it was pretty warm right before Christmas in mid-December. Not sure if that was the year.