April is the cruellest month. So intoned poet T.S. Eliot in the opening of ‘The Wasteland.’ He did however have other thoughts in mind besides putting up with early spring in Nova Scotia.
It’s a rite of the season to complain about the slow progress of any warming trend, and also noted by some in the province that Nova Scotia doesn’t really have spring. It stays cold and dreary, and then summer just sort of shows up one day.
So much for the folksier aspects of weather observation. But realistically, we got off pretty easy this past winter, with a lot less snow than usual, and when storms were in the forecast, the hype was bigger than what ultimately showed up.
That relatively easy winter probably lends much to our perception that spring should have been just around the corner the week after the groundhog prognosticated. But a look back at average temps for this time of year will show cool weather and substantial falls of snow are far from out of the ordinary.
Unfortunately, the sudden relapse into wintery conditions does manage to inspire havoc, particularly among drivers. While we escaped the sleet and freezing rain conditions late last week, residents of Ontario and Quebec were not so lucky.
The mix of snow, freezing rain, ice pellets, rain and powerful winds that battered that region Saturday and Sunday resulted in treacherous conditions, with provincial police in Ontario reporting more than 1,600 non-fatal crashes on the highways surrounding Toronto over the two days.
Not to point a finger at drivers in another province – we could expect a similar outcome here – but it makes you wonder just what they don’t understand about slippery road conditions. They’ve just gone through winter, so the memory should be as fresh as fallen snow. And it shouldn’t come as a shock that wintery conditions can still hit us in April.
Some might be mulling over whether they should have waited to switch back to all-season tires. But the reality is the safest approach to deal with slippery roads is to reduce speed and drive cautiously – similar to the advice police issue at the start of winter as the instances of collisions increase.
There is of course an upside we should remember with these wet and even snowy days in mid-spring.
With the modest amount of snow received over winter, some pointed to what they considered a looming hardship. Farmers, for instance, who grow forage crops rely on a good snow cover to melt into the soil in spring. Domestic water supplies – wells and municipal sources – also are replenished with that extra moisture early in the year. And the lesser amount of snow in the woods had forest experts warning that we could see an early start to wildfires.
The cool, wet, sometimes snowy days we’re seeing now, with frost out of the ground, will have a chance to soak in. It’s a bit grey and discouraging, but it’ll pay off in the long run.
