December to February | One of the mildest winters in 150 years in Montreal

The climatological winter, which covers the months of December to February inclusive, could have broken a record for mildness in Montreal, show preliminary calculations from Environment Canada.

“For the Quebec region, there are still some winters with which we enter into competition, but for Montreal, there is only the winter of 2001-2002 which will compete with the current winter,” notes Jean-Philippe Bégin , meteorologist with Environment Canada.

The climatological winter of 2023-2024 extends from 1^er December to February 29 (91 days), but calculations available on Friday 1^er March ended on February 26 (88 days).

As of February 26, the climatological winter of 2023-2024 was already one of the mildest that Montreal has experienced since 1871, in second position behind the winter of 2001-2002. Among the three days that remain to be included in these calculations, based on data from several weather stations, there are two very mild days (February 27 and 28), and only one cold (February 29).

Data from the station located at Montreal-Trudeau airport for the entire climatological winter also reflect this trend. Out of 91 days, there were 50 where the mercury rose above 0°C.

The mercury at this Montreal resort has not even fallen below -20°C once this winter. The coldest temperature recorded was -17°C on January 20.

In the list of mildest winters, 2001-2002 is also the only serious competitor in the Gatineau-Ottawa region, where the oldest weather station has been in service since 1890.

In the Quebec region, where data has been available since 1878, at least three winters have been milder than the one that has just ended. These records are, however, relatively recent since the oldest of the three is, here too, the winter of 2001-2002.

In Val-d’Or, on the other hand, where the story begins in the middle of the last century, we are already practically guaranteed to have broken a record. “Since 1951, this is the mildest year ever recorded,” says Mr. Bégin, even though two of the three days remaining to be included in the calculations were cold. “Three days out of 91 days should not completely change the situation. »

Glowing Cards

Environment Canada also produces maps to visualize the extent of the “temperature anomaly” of a climatological winter.

These maps show how much the average temperature of a climatological winter deviates from the normal (this normal represents the average for the years 1991 to 2020).

The range ranges from dark blue (at least 4°C below average) to blood red (at least 4°C above average).

For the climatological winter which has just ended, blood red is very widespread.

“It’s impressive how much of the country it covers, from Saskatchewan/Manitoba to Quebec. I haven’t seen anything like this since [j’ai commencé à faire] about the weather, about 15 years ago! », exclaims Mr. Bégin.

“The years follow one another, but they are not alike,” he emphasizes, however, showing the blue maps of two successive winters (2013-2014 and 2014-2015) and, more recently, the winter of 2021-2022.

“The winter of 2014-2015, it was extreme how cold it was in the Montreal area, there were water pipes that froze,” recalls the meteorologist, who experienced it in his apartment of Ahuntsic.

The winters to come will therefore not all be the same as the one we have just gone through,

“There will still be cold winters, despite climate change. It might be rarer, but don’t expect it to never happen. »

Sweet release

However, winter will not return for the school break which begins.

“It will be mild in all inhabited areas of Quebec at least until the middle of next week,” summarizes Mr. Bégin. The forecast applies to “the entire west, south and center of Quebec. Even in the east, it’s going to be mild.”

However, it is much too early to predict the end of next week. “We could have snow events in the south, center, east of Quebec, that remains to be seen. We should not think that winter has necessarily surrendered and the snow is over. We’re not there yet, we’re just at the beginning of March. »

Astronomical winter, which ends with the spring equinox, is also far from over. The spring equinox will only occur on March 19 at 11:06 p.m., says Environment Canada.

With the collaboration of Pierre-André Normandin, The Press