Want to visit Toronto? Afraid of the cold weather? The seasons changed (officially) on Sunday the 23d of September. It signaled the end of our hot and sticky summer and the arrival of the cooler weather of autumn.
But this year, the summer was anything but hot and sticky and today (the second day of autumn) saw temperatures in the high 20′sC and the humidity making it feel as if it were 33C! The forecast for, at least, the next week is for more of the same!
The long range prediction is that our autumn/fall season will experience above average temperatures and below average precipitation. All in all, rather pleasant weather for visitors to our city.
The weather patterns of Canada, in general, and Toronto, in particular, have changed radically in recent years. We still have the bright, blazing colors of the forests as the deciduous trees loose their leaves and drop. (A show which is going on even as I write this blog.)
But winters in Canada have also been moderated by the effects of Global Warming. Ontario ski resorts were closed for a month last year during what should have been their peak season. And the time was (and not so long ago) that our city would be snow covered by mid-November.
Last year we had a green Christmas and had virtually no snow until mid-January. Although what followed was the coldest February in three decades, it is safe to say that Toronto’s winters are much milder that they were only a few years ago. I have not needed to wear my snow boots for the past two years!
The leaves of our forests just north of Toronto have begun to turn bright colors – a sure sign that winter is just around the corner – but from the warm weather we are experiencing right now, you’d never know it!
Of course it’s politically incorrect to say so, but I kind of hope that this winter is a repeat of the last two; minus the freezing month of February of last year.
