Don’t blame the groundhog.
Grande Prairie’s winter has come and gone several times now, and with the calendar saying spring has officially sprung, many residents are wondering the same thing- what gives?
Environment Canada Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga says March in the Peace Country traditionally brings what she calls a “weather whiplash,”; but while fluctuating temperatures can frustrate, it’s considered normal for the region.
“You can get temperature swings at any time, [but] when we get into March, we can get this sort of weather whiplash,” she says. “It may feel a little strange or [it may] feel a little bit like Spring may never come, but this is pretty typical for this time of year.”
Normal, but frustrating
Grande Prairie can almost always count on January being the snowiest month of the year, but the spring as a whole doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the white stuff.
Climenhaga says during a typical year, March will see 20 or so centimetres of snow, with another 11 centimetres the average in April, and a significant chance of snow at least once in early May.
“If you average out the last 30 years, you’ll even generally see snow in early May, so it is something we contend with every year, and it can be a bit frustrating when you’re ready for spring to happen.”
“It’s not out of the ordinary to see these sorts of systems roll through and dump some snow.”
Spring snow
In addition to most being tired of shovelling comes springtime, the task seems worse the later it happens, and there’s a science behind that.
“When you’re looking at the types of snow we get when you have really cold temperatures, there’s not quite as much water content in our snow- so our ‘snow-to-liquid ratio’ we call it, is a little bit lower,” Climenhaga says.
“You start to get into this time of year, a little bit warmer, a little bit higher in terms of water content, and you get that dense, wet, slushy snow, which can be a little bit more frustrating, and of course, very very heavy to shovel away.”
The snow in Grande Prairie is expected to continue until at least the beginning of the weekend, and it is likely the city is in for another melt with temperatures forecasted as high as 10 degrees Celcius on Monday.
