For a second consecutive month, temperatures remained above seasonal norms in January in Quebec. Elsewhere in the world, cold records have been broken.
These fluctuations, which could be symptomatic of “a system in the process of breaking down”, estimates Philippe Gachon, researcher at the Center for the study and simulation of the climate on a regional scale.
On average, temperatures were 5 degrees Celsius above seasonal norms in January, from Abitibi-Témiscamingue to Gaspésie. This is Environment Canada’s assessment of the start of 2023.
“It’s special this year, I’ve rarely seen it, and I’ve been in Quebec for 30 years,” says Mr. Gachon, also a professor in the geography department of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM ).
Montreal has had no day below -20 degrees Celsius, and only one day below -15 degrees Celsius. The average temperature for January is -4 degrees Celsius, the highest ever recorded in the metropolis. The previous record of -4.7 degrees Celsius was set in 2017.
“This year, what was exceptional in Montreal and in part of Canada, is that the maximum temperatures were abnormally hot,” also underlines Mr. Gachon.
A graph from the UQAM Meteorological Center indeed shows a portrait of the month of January where the daily maximum temperatures are constantly above normal, and only once when the minimum temperature drops below the average. A very different picture from previous years.
This month of January is also distinguished by a high quantity of snow received, and by a significant number of alternating freezes and thaws, indicates Mr. Gachon.
All at a time when the month of December had also broken temperature records. “It is therefore two consecutive months, in the east of the country, which are abnormally hot”, he observes.
Significant fluctuations
Elsewhere in the country, the average for the month of January is also above seasonal norms, reports André Cantin, meteorologist for Environment Canada.
In the northern Prairies and in the Northwest Territories, temperatures were about 9 degrees above average, the largest deviation in the country. British Columbia was rather spared the rise in temperatures.
New York City has also reached its longest winter without snow in fifty years, the American network CBS announced on Monday.
In Europe, a heatwave in early January was widely publicized, when at least eight countries recorded record high temperatures. “At the same time, in north-eastern Siberia, we broke cold records,” recalls Mr. Gachon. This fluctuation of temperature anomalies related to atmospheric circulation, these are things that we expect to do with climate change. »
Current temperatures will be the subject of further research, reports the researcher. “But it’s clear that if we break records, it’s something that happens,” he says.
With Pierre-André Normandin, The Press