Warm, drier spring on the way for Leeds-Grenville: TWN

BROCKVILLE – It looks like a warm, pleasant spring is on the way for residents of Brockville and Leeds-Grenville.

The Weather Network is out with its spring outlook this week and is calling for a mild spring and even an early entrance for summer.

“Obviously, this is continuing after a winter that was quite mild across a lot of Eastern Canada, especially December but January and February as well we’re relatively mild,” said Michael Carter, meteorologist at The Weather Network.

“March is likely to still be a bit unsettled. We’ll kind of see that temperature roller coaster continue where we’ll have some mild periods followed by potential for another shot of cold,” Carter told Brockville Newswatch.

The next week will bring “a lot of potential for a nice warm up” to the region. “A nice little taste of spring at least for people that are looking for some early spring-like temperatures,” he said.

“For the most part the trend will definitely be milder and drier as we continue through the next three months,” he told BNW.

The average highs for the Brockville area are three degrees in March, 11 degrees in April and 18 degrees in May.

“The message with this particular forecast is warmer even than that, especially later in the spring towards summer, we’re expecting some summer-like temperatures to arrive definitely by May and June,” Carter said. “Even if you look back to last summer, it was well into August before we starting getting really summer-like temperatures to show up for us in southern Ontario. This would be a case where we wouldn’t be expecting a delayed spring or a delayed start to summer.”

As for rain, the Leeds-Grenville region receives, on average, 32 millimeters in March, 69 in April and 84 in May. Spring snowfall is around 31 centimeters in March, eight centimeters in April and none in May.

“For us in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Valley, definitely below normal precipitation for the spring period,” Carter said. Conversely, he said the Atlantic provinces will be wetter this spring.

With the drier, hotter spring, Carter said they will be monitoring very closely for a possible summer drought. “We should still see occasional periods of rain so we’re not forecasting at this point, severe drought-like conditions but just a drier trend overall.”