OTTAWA, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Environment Canada's forecast for a colder-than-normal winter in western Canada has turned out to be way off-base so far, the agency's top meteorologist admits.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. noted Tuesday the 2011-2012 winter has thus far been one of the mildest on record -- so warm, in fact, the only people it has been tough on are those trying to maintain ice rinks and businesses, such as ski areas, that rely on a cold and snowy winter.
"Boy, never have we been more wrong in the West as this year," Dave Phillips, chief climatologist for Environment Canada, told the news network. "I mean, you know, to have just been normal would have been a real error.
"But my gosh, when you come out of December and January to be the second-warmest on record, I mean, it really is embarrassing almost. I mean it truly, when you look at it, it's been sort of the non-winter."
The weather service says the average daily high ran more than 6 degrees Celsius higher than average in Winnipeg, while snowfall for the month was nearly 6 inches below normal.
Phillips said the pre-winter forecast had been based on the expectation that the La Nina weather pattern over the Pacific Ocean would hold down temperatures in western Canada, but it didn't turn out that way. Instead, Arctic air that usually moves south has been kept north by a strong jet stream.
