© Andrew Wallace/Toronto StarPeople revel in springlike weather at Toronto City Hall on March 8 as temperatures hit 14C
The previous record was set in the winter of 2005/2006 when it was 3.9 degrees Celsius above normal. The winter of 1971/1972 remains the coldest in Environment Canada's records - at 3.9 degrees below normal.
This winter is also the driest out of the 63 years of record keeping with precipitation across the country down 22 per cent below normal. The previous driest winter was 1977/1978 when precipitation was 20.1 per cent below normal.
This year parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario had 60 per cent less precipitation than normal.
It seems winter across Canada - which is defined by Environment Canada as December, January and February -- have warmed up by about 2.5 degrees since 1948, according to a recent report put out by Environment Canada looking at the history of temperature and precipitation across the country.
It's enough to make climatologist David Phillips shake his head in amazement. "It's quite spectacular," he said in analyzing the data from the report. "We've never seen a winter like this."
What's more the seasons are all slightly warmer annually -- about 1.4 degrees warmer over the past 63 years. The warmer temperatures are most definitely a "sea change," said Phillips.
Records across Canada were shattered from B.C. to Baffin Island to the Great Lakes. "In the Arctic it was the warmest winter on record," said Phillips.
The report by Environment Canada also found that of the 10 warmest years, four have occurred within the last decade. Eleven of the last 20 winters are listed among the warmest. Here across the GTA there was a snow drought this year - with the total amount of snow down about 40 per cent.
This year's warmer and drier winter season could have dramatic long term implications, Phillips said, especially if the drought-like warm conditions continue through the spring and summer, bringing on a decline in crops, an increase in forest fires, possible insect infestations and perhaps a water shortage. It all sounds a bit biblical, chuckles Phillips, like pestilence descending on the land.
"This winter was a double whammy. We define winter by temperature and snow. And in both counts it was the year without winter. Winter took a holiday. We're a winter people. And we're still waiting for winter."
What's becoming quite clear, Phillips said, is Canadian winters are becoming quite different. Phillips points to the weather in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. during the Olympics as an example of this year's balmier temperatures. "Canadians from coast to coast are shocked," he said. The Inuit and Atlantic Canadians are equally surprised by the weather in their region, he said.
The reason for this year's warmer and drier winter is El Nino, a shift in the winds and ocean currents in the Pacific, Phillips said.
But what's also at play Phillips said is the thinning of the polar ice cap. "In the last three to four years the ice in the Arctic has thinned," he said. "And that means the refrigeration at the top of the world is not cooling like it did in the past."
Was one of the coldest on record in the Canadian prairies.