It doesn't take an expert to realize that snow is expected in Montreal and several other Quebec cities this year, but Environment Canada meteorologists are calling it a “significant deficit” compared to seasonal norms.
In one on the platform
On December 31, Sept-Îles covered 5 cm of snow, but according to seasonal norms it should be 31 cm.
Environment Canada reports that snowpack is also well below seasonal norms in Gaspé and Bagotville in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
Despite this deficit, it is not a record, says Gregory Yang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
Montreal, for example, has had a green Christmas six times in the last ten years. In Quebec it is a little rarer. The last time we didn't have snow on the ground on December 25th was in 2015.
The further north a city is in the province, the less likely it is to have a green Christmas, Mr Yang said.
The averages published by Environment Canada were calculated from data collected between 1981 and 2010, he says.
Next year, the organization will receive new data collected between 1991 and 2010 that will allow us to see whether climate change has affected seasonal snowpack averages in recent years.
For now, Yang suspects that the amount of snow from the new data will be below the previous average.
It is not yet possible to say whether climate change will lead to less snow in the coming winters, but the meteorologist assumes that we can expect more unpredictable winters.
Given global warming, this doesn't necessarily mean it will get hotter in the future, just that there could be more extremes, explains Mr Yang.
With information from The Canadian Press