By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM

The New York Times Editorial this morning noted correctly:
“A real winter, like the one we’re having this week, means capitulating to the weather. There is no negotiating with a wind-chill of zero, no pretending that the driveway really doesn’t need plowing, no running a few errands without a hat and scarf and gloves. You simply give in and meet the season’s terms. That is part of the pleasure of a real winter.

You feel very resilient for living within its strictness. Yet if you look back in time, you can’t help wondering at the resilience of everyone who lived within winter’s strictness before central heating was invented.

There is no knowing what lies ahead, of course. This could be the start of an epic winter. It could be shirt-sleeves and gnats flying in early January again, for all we know. But if the past few winters here in the Northeast have taught us anything, it is to be prepared to do whatever winter allows at the moment it allows it. That could mean
snowshoeing through the woods on a day like yesterday or playing an improbable - and deeply disarming - round of golf.”

Icecap Note: New York City has experienced the coldest January since 1977 in 2004, the coldest February since 1979 in 2007. December last year was the 3rd warmest on record while this month so far has averaged 5F below normal.  Snowfall for four years straight ending in 2005/06 topped 40 inches for the first time since record-keeping began in the 1870s and a new single storm record was set for snow in February 2006 with 26.9 inches at Central Park.

Also the big storm that hit Canada and the northern US hard this last weekend (see last blog and note from Madhav Khandekar on the impact on Toronto) hit areas to the east very hard. According to the Ottawa Citizen: Ottawa is currently under one of the biggest snow removal operations in the city’s history after Sunday’s massive snowstorm. “It’s no Academy Award, but it was the snowiest December day ever in the capital,” said Environment Canada meteorologist David Phillips. In total, 37 centimetres fell in Sunday’s storm, setting a record for the most snow in a single December day since Environment Canada started keeping records in 1938. The previous record was 30.4 centimetres, which fell Dec. 21, 1977. However, the record for most snowfall in a 24-hour period remains 40.4 centimetres, which fell March 2, 1947. There is now a 75-centimetre blanket of snow on the ground in Ottawa. That’s the most snow that has been on the ground at one time since Environment Canada started keeping track in 1955, said Mr. Phillips. The previous record was 68 centimeters in 1977. The total cumulative snowfall so far this year is 148 centimeters, including almost 90 centimeters in December. At this time last year, only 18 centimeters had fallen.