Ottawa Blizzard

I'm not sure about The Weather Network Don, but Weatherbell seems to have been basing their forecast on the warm water south of Alaska, and how this apparently led to cold in years like 2003, 2014, and 2015. However, it has to be said that, on his blog this morning, Joe Bastardi has drawn attention to the winter of 1936-1937, which apparently also had warm water in the Gulf of Alaska, but ended up with a warm winter in eastern North America, following a colder than average November. Here is a link to that winter's observations in Toronto. https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_data/daily_data_e.html?hlyRange=1953-01-01|1969-05-31&dlyRange=1840-03-01|2017-04-27&mlyRange=1840-01-01|2006-12-01&StationID=5051&Prov=ON&urlExtension=_e.html&searchType=stnName&optLimit=yearRange&StartYear=1840&EndYear=1977&selRowPerPage=25&Line=0&searchMethod=contains&txtStationName=Toronto&timeframe=2&Day=1&Year=1937&Month=1

Great write-up Don. It's interesting that, up here in Canada, Environment Canada was the only outlet which called for a mild winter. It was against the grain, and raised eyebrows in other weather outlets; The Weather Network called for a much colder than average winter across much of Ontario. It's looking increasingly likely that Environment Canada and the NWS were right, while Canada's Weather Network and Weatherbell Analytics were wrong.

I'm surprised arctic sea ice is so low when you consider how cold it has been in the Arctic. Forecast for Resolute is below. http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/nu-27_metric_e.html

Just wanted to drop in and congratulate you guys in Alaska and the yukon who are having such an amazing winter. Has been largely a dud for us out east! Amazing pics by the way!