After a wicked end to April, the first days of May are a mixed bag in Ontario
Digital Writers
Friday, April 30th 2021, 8:20 pm - Powerful winds and even a dash of snow in some areas saw out the month of April.
With punishing winds, cool temperatures and even a dash of snow, the last day of April didn t feel particularly spring-like. For the weekend ahead, there s a limited temperature recovery for some, but much of the rest of the opening days of May look to be on the cooler side. A more detailed look, below.
INTO THE WEEKEND: HOVERING NEAR SEASONAL, THREAT FOR PASSING SHOWERS
After a strong start in April, spring sputters into May across Canada
Dr. Doug Gillham
Saturday, May 1st 2021, 6:31 am - The first half of May will be dominated by the same pattern that gripped the second half of April, but the focus of the cold weather will shift somewhat.
Spring got off to a strong start across most of Canada, with above-seasonal temperatures dominating east of the Rockies from the end of February until the middle of April.
The temperature anomaly map below shows temperatures relative to normal from March 1st to April 15th and the various shades of yellow, orange, and red highlight the widespread warmer than normal temperatures.
“Hair-raising” study finds glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate
Stephen Leahy
Thursday, April 29th 2021, 1:55 pm - Water shortages in Canada and many other parts of the world are possible as glaciers rapidly recede.
The world’s glaciers are in an accelerating melt down according to the first ever study of all 220,000 glaciers. In the past two decades these mountain glaciers have lost an average of 267 billions tons of ice per year. That’s enough to submerge all of southern Ontario from Windsor to Cornwall and up to Algonquin Park under two meters of water every year.
This does not include ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
1997 Red River flood was one of Canada s worst miraculously no one died
Randi Mann
Listen to The Weather Network s
This Day in Weather History podcast on this topic, here.
This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by The Weather Network that features stories about people, communities, and events and how weather impacted them.
The Red River runs through Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. It s 890 km long, with the confluence source of Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail Rivers in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and feeding into Lake Winnipeg.
In 1950, the river flooded, eight dikes broke and large portion of Winnipeg was overtaken by water. Around 70,000 people were evacuated. Because of this flood, Manitoba s Premier, Duff Roblin, initiated the Red River Floodway (a manufactured flood-control waterway).
Strong northwesterly winds threaten damage, outages across southern Ontario
Digital Writers
Friday, April 30th 2021, 8:45 am - Widespread special weather statements line southern Ontario for powerful and potentially damaging winds on Friday.
The month of April will come to a close feeling much more like the middle of March, as cool temperatures, the threat for snow flurries and powerful northwesterly winds whip into the region for Friday. Widespread special weather statements are in effect for southern Ontario, warning of potential damage to tree branches and isolated power outages. While the winds will ease heading into the weekend, temperatures will remain on the cool side of seasonal. The region will remain a battleground between the warm and cool air into next week as well, with no consistent signs of any warmth right through the first week of May. More on the cool and blustery end to April and how the start of May is shaping up, below.