Celebrating Canada Day By Remembering Winter

Today is Canada Day and I don't have a good post planned. That is not to say, however, that you don't get a post. I have been looking for a really hot, boring, day to share some statistics about this past winter in my area.

I first saw these as a headline on our local newspaper in the ER waiting room when Dave hurt his hand. However, since I had other things on my mind, I forgot to take a picture. But being the amazing researcher that I am, I found them again. I used Google, of course, and it actually did take some persistence because it didn't come up right away. Yep, it took at least ten minutes of searching before I found it. That's a long time in this age of instant knowledge at your fingertips.

Anyway, interspersed in this post are pictures of Sam and Rachel. Rachel is eating lunch after her first swimming lesson yesterday and Sam is (not so) patiently waiting for his first tennis lesson to start. It was 29C (85F) with a humidex of 37C (99F), so it was plenty hot, and I am ready to remember winter again :) (Please note I said "remember" not "experience" thankyouverymuch! Also if you've forgotten what the humidex is, click on the post I linked to above and an explanation of "humidex" is towards the end.)

And now, on with the stats.
-8.9C (16F) — average daily winter temperature, winter 2013-2014, normal is -5.1C (23F), coldest ever was -9.4C (15F) set in 1917-1918
-30.7C (-24F) — coldest winter temperature in 2013-2014, set Feb. 12

25 — days below -20C (-4F) in winter 2013-2014; normal is 6 days
22 — winter days above freezing; normal is 40 days

182cm (72 inches) — winter snowfall, 2013-2014, 160cm (63 inches) — average winter snowfall
Note: Environment Canada considers December, January and February as "winter."
from our local paper, The Record

Having lived the reality of these stats is why, around here, you will hear people saying, "It sure is hot but after the winter we just had, you won't hear me complaining!" We are reveling in our heat!

So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, today is Canada Day. That means we're celebrating Canada's birthday by wearing red and white, letting our patriotism show (even though it's not the Winter Olympics), and enjoying a day off. "A day off" where we still have swimming and tennis lessons and have to pick up our CSA. Other than that, it's practically the weekend!