Canada meteorological service has announced that it expects the next two months to be an average of around 2C warmer than usual in the country. They say this is predominantly down to the current El Nino affect from the Pacific.
The news has brought mixed reactions. Last January parts of the country experienced record cold temperatures, so it being slightly less cold is being widely welcomed.
And in the West of the country, which has seen more snowfall than anywhere else in the world over the past month, with Revelstoke in BC posting more than 4m of snow in November alone, slightly higher temperatures, whilst still below freezing, are not being seen as a bad thing.
The only part of Canadas that has been struggling to date with temperatures much more than two degrees higher than normal is in the Eastern Side of the country, particularly Quebec. It's an area that looks likely to continue to be hit hardest by the Canadian Meteorologists predictions, shown in the map above.
Temperatures have been too warm for snowmaking and there had been no natural snowfall in November, although that has changed a little in the past 48 hours with some areas in the region reporting fresh snow. Mont Sainte Anne and Tremblant have both opened limited terrain with a very thin base.
Whistler on the West is also shown in the 'red zone' as likely to see warm temperatures, but it is also being shown by snow forecasters as likely to be the most dumped-[on ski area on the planet over the next 10 days with some forecasters expecting a metre of snow ion the next three days and another metre the following week, so again warmer temperatures may not be too big a problem so far as snowfall is concerned, they may even encourage it.
