TRENTON - The weather, we all love to talk about it and complain about it, but we can't do a darn thing about it.
For most of us it's just a fascination or conversation starter but in some cases lives or livelihoods depend on it.
Pilots, for example, eat, sleep and breathe weather, for obvious reasons.
Trenton airport manager Bruce Paige spends plenty of his time with one eye, or sometimes both, on the skies.
He's seeing something a bit different this fall.
"I don't have any complaints," he said of the mild weather. "With no snow, I don't have to plow it. Usually, we're plowing, it's been plowed once or twice by now. But we haven't had to do that yet."
Data on the Environment Canada website show that 10 cm of snow fell at the Lyons Brook reporting station in 2007 on December 3 and the year before that - on the same date - 7 cm of snow fell.
Kevin Thompson, owner of Pictou County's Best Christmas Trees, wants to see some of the white stuff.
"A little snow gets people in the mood. It's been unseasonably warm. It affects us in that way, it doesn't feel like December."
Brett Anderson, a radio forecaster with AccuWeather.com, would agree.
"It's been very unusual since November. It's been extremely mild across most of Nova Scotia," he said. "But that's going to change…There's going to be colder weather come the weekend, more typical of the cold you'd see in early December."
It may be mild now but it's a bit early for people to think that we're in for a balmy holiday season.
"I've already had people ask me 'Where's winter?' Realistically, it's just started, give it a chance, give it a little time. It's not going to stay this way, things will turn back. Towards the second half of the month it will turn pretty cold across Atlantic Canada," Anderson said.
In fact, we could get a taste of winter as soon as this weekend.
"There's a storm rushing by and it looks like on Saturday it might clip parts of Nova Scotia with some snow, probably less than 5 cm in some areas. It's just a teaser. If you like snow you'll start liking it the second half of the month."
Anderson said this type of weather may be a sign of the way things are, but he doesn't want to start pointing his finger at climate change just yet. He would like more evidence.
"I wouldn't say less snowfall but in terms of temperatures it's probably a little bit warmer than the 1990s, but I don't know what to make of that…That's only 10 years, I like to look at more data than that."
But what about the big question on everyone's minds? Is Santa going to use his sleigh or a truck?
Anderson wouldn't guarantee snow on December 25, but he was confident.
"I actually do think you'll get a white Christmas."
Is this normal?
Judging from data of the past few years, this weather isn't that strange.
You have to go back to 2004 before you find a temperature below zero on December 3. That was just - 2º for a high temperature and - 7º for a low. In 2005 the high was 5º with a low of -1º. That trend played out since then too, 2006 1.5º high, -8º low; 2007 1º high, -5º low and last year the high on Dec. 3 was 7º and the low was 1º.
Yesterday at 2 p.m. the reported temperature was 6.6º, a bit under the prediction of 11º. The normal for this time of year is a high of 3º with a low of -5º.
Those numbers lend credence to Nova Scotia earning the title of province with the mildest winter according to the Environment Canada website.
Our province's average temperature for winter is listed as 0.08º. That figure is reached by taking the highest afternoon average temperatures in December, January and February. The Canadian average
is -23.98º.
On the flip side of that Nova Scotia comes in 13th in the coldest weather race with an average of -8.92º. Weather watchers come up with that number by taking the lowest average night time temperatures in December, January and February.
The Canadian average was -24.65º and Nunavut claimed top prize (or bottom depending on your point of view) with an average of -33.35º.
Despite being named the province with the mildest winter we place mid-pack with the fifth highest annual snowfall with a greatest total annual snowfall of 259.37 centimetres. The Canadian average is 201cm while Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest average with 451.93 cm.
