This from the intriguing Blog “Anybody Want A Peanut”.
As you can see, beginning March 9 there is not a single day where this year was warmer than last year, or where we exceeded the normal historical high for that day. In fact for the most part we were a good 5-10 degrees below the normal temperature for that time of year.
That’s a pretty spectacular run of below-normal temps!
The tricky question is: why did it happen? What happened on March 9 to cause our thermometers to plummet?
Well, I looked into that too and I’ve found the answer: On March 9 an asteroid the size of a city block buzzed by earth. It is apparent that the gravitational pull or cosmic wake from this asteroid caused a short term alteration in Earth’s weather patterns such that winter was extended by a month and a half on the prairies.
That is your explanation folks. If you are skeptical then that means you don’t trust science.
As us Manitobans withstand this stubborn winter that just will not go away we can further feel cheated when looking back to historical weather. Back in 1980 it was 34 celsius. Absolute beach weather.
Miami is a community in southern Manitoba, Canada which was formed in 1885. It supports a K-12 school and has a curling rink and a skating rink. It lies 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of Thompson. Miami also has a well trained fire department. Members of the department are trained to a minimum Level I fire fighting certification with the Office of the Fire Commissioner. The Miami Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service has about 24 active members. The town also has a well trained and well equipped EMS Unit that works in conjunction with the surrounding hospitals.
In 2005, the town was the victim of a mass street sign theft. All of the towns signs, a total of 44, were stolen just before Christmas Day; total replacement cost was about $7,000 CAD. It just so happened that same night a house fire was reported and no street signs were available for directions.
Most of the streets in the community are named after prominent past residents or pioneers.
Miami was used in a controversial prank contest by Winnipeg radio station Classic Rock 97.5 FM (CJKR) morning man Scruff Connors in 1995. The radio station ran a contest for an all expenses paid trip to Miami to watch the Super Bowl, but did not mention that they were referring to Miami, Manitoba and not the one in Florida. Local media reported that some participants had considered lawsuits over the prank. Because of the negative backlash of the prank, CJKR terminated Connors’ contract within days of the incident. Miami, Manitoba is also the hometown of Mickey Rooney’s mother, according to an interview with him in 1998 by Michael Enwright.
This year Miami has experienced a record amount of snowfall. The town was almost buried twice by unrelenting snow flurries. These images are from April 20th, 2013. In a regular year the lawns in Miami would turning green and children would be playing in the streets. But this year the stubborn cold weather has left the town buried beneath mounds of dirty, sticky and non-melting snow.
Springtime: the time for flowers, newborn animals … and snow. Nearly half of the United States is currently covered in snow, including most of Canada, as can be seen in this image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That’s the largest extent of snow cover at this point in the season in at least 10 years, according to NOAA. Much of the snow came from a massive spring blizzard that dropped snow throughout the Midwest and East Coast, breaking records in many cities.
The town of Lincoln, Ill., broke its daily snow total of 4 inches (10 centimeters), which was set in 1947, with 10.8 inches (27 cm) of snow on Sunday (March 24), according to AccuWeather. The weather system also dropped 2.9 inches (7.4 cm) of snow in Columbus, Ohio, breaking the old record of 1.8 inches (4.6 cm) set in 1965.
There could be some major flooding in southern Manitoba this year. The snow accumulation this year is very high as shown in these pictures from Library Park in downtown Winnipeg.
Springtime has finally arrived in southern Manitoba. The only tangible evidence of this is the switch to daylight savings time this past weekend. It is light out until 7:30 pm. Just 8 weeks ago it was pitch dark at 5pm. It has been a tough winter. One of the coldest January’s and February’s in recent memory.
Blistering cold windchill. Walking a few blocks was akin to the endeavours of Arctic explorers. Scarfs around the face so the nose doesn’t freeze and fall off causes the sunglasses to fog up. This in turn caused navigation on the slippery sidewalks even more hazardous than normal. Once we get through the melt that creates slush, mush, ice mixed in pools of water and the uncovering of the total filth that the streets are because of all the sanding and garbage accumulation under the layers of snow, things will get better, hopefully.
First the weather has to get better. Last year we had an amazing March. Temps were way above normal. So it is time to cross our fingers and hope this March is the same. Gotta accentuate the positive and minimize the negative.
The cities of the western Canadian prairies experience a lot of sun. They get very cold weather in the winter, but it is a sunny cold. Blankets of white snow on a sunny crisp day can be very pleasing to the eye.
The big megalopolis cities of the east get a lot of sun also. But the hundreds of thousands of cars criss crossing on the giant freeways create choking smog on humid days.
Vancouver has been called one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but don’t forget your umbrella when you go outside. Plenty of rain on the west coast.
Below is a list of the sunniest cities in Canada from Environment Canada.
Average number of hours of bright sunshine a year in major Canadian cities.
City
Hours
Calgary, Alberta
2405
Winnipeg, Manitoba
2372
Regina, Saskatchewan
2338
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
2329
Edmonton, Alberta
2299
Victoria, British Columbia
2193
Hamilton, Ontario
2088
Ottawa, Ontario
2061
Barrie, Ontario
2055
Toronto, Ontario
2038
Winnipeg
Average number of days annually with some bright sunshine.
City
Days
Calgary, Alberta
333
Edmonton, Alberta
321
Regina, Saskatchewan
321
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
320
Winnipeg, Manitoba
318
Victoria, British Columbia
317
Windsor, Ontario
307
Kelowna, British Columbia
306
Montréal, Quebec
304
Barrie, Ontario
303
Ottawa, Ontario
303
Toronto, Ontario
303
Calgary
Percentage of daylight hours that are sunny
City
% sunshine
Calgary, Alberta
53
Winnipeg, Manitoba
51
Regina, Saskatchewan
50
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
50
Edmonton, Alberta
49
Victoria, British Columbia
46
Hamilton, Ontario
45
Ottawa, Ontario
45
Montréal, Quebec
44
Toronto, Ontario
44
Regina
Vancouver is Canada’s third most rainy city, with over 161 rainy days per year. As measured at Vancouver airport in Richmond, Vancouver receives 1154.7 mm of rain per year. By comparison, the amount of rainfall in London, England is nearly half that of Vancouver. In North Vancouver, about 20 km away from the Vancouver airport, the amount of rain received doubles to 2477 mm per year as measured at the base of Grouse Mountain.
Coldest village in the world just got even COLDER… weather takes turn for the worse in -71C Russian hamlet where even the planes can’t land in winter
Russian village of Oymyakon has lowest recorded temperature for any permanently inhabited location
Nothing grows so locals live off diet of reindeer meat and horse meat but never suffer malnourishment
Locals keep their cars running all day for fear of them not starting again if turned off
Digging graves for a funeral can take up to three days as ground has to be thawed with hot coals
As we whinge about the wintry weather here in Britain, spare a thought for those living in a Russian hamlet where temperatures can plummet to -71C, so cold even planes cannot land there in winter.
The valley of Oymyakon in northeast Russia is known as the ‘Pole of Cold’ and with an average January temperature of -50C, it is no wonder the village is the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world.
This is the lowest recorded temperature for any permanently inhabited location on Earth and the lowest temperature recorded in the Northern Hemisphere.
The ‘Pole of Cold’: The average temperature for January in the Russian village of Oymyakon is -50C, with -71.2C the lowest ever recorded temperature
The village, which is home to about 500 people, was, in the 1920s and 1930s, a stopover for reindeer herders who would water their flocks from the thermal spring.
But the Soviet government, in its efforts to settle nomadic populations, believing them to be difficult to control and technologically and culturally backward, made the site a permanent settlement.
