Mother Nature lies: Winter only ‘officially’ starts tomorrow

Dec 20 2018, 10:30 pm

After a frightfully cold and snowy fall, it might be alarming to Montrealers to know that winter hasn’t even officially begun.

Well Mother Nature, you’re a liar. Fall certainly felt like winter.

Montreal dealt with historically cold “winter” days this fall as well as hefty snow falls.

And unfortunately, we still have a long winter trek left to tackle. According to Time and Date, tomorrow’s winter solstice in Montreal starts at 5:23 pm and will bring with it the shortest and darkest day of the year.

The December solstice is an astronomical phenomenon when the sun is at its southernmost position in the sky.

Environment Canada’s long-term winter forecast, however, says the country can expect a “milder than normal” winter this year, thanks to the weather pattern, El Nino.

winter

livemontreal/Instagram

El Nino is characterized by warming in the Pacific Ocean, which can influence weather around the world and result in higher temperatures and greater precipitation in various regions.

El Nino is projected to be “weak to moderate” this year according to the weather website, but since Canada is the second coldest and snowiest country in the world, we’re still going to experience winter, it just won’t have the sting that we’ve seen in other years.

Considering Montreal is likely starting the holidays off without snow, here’s hoping this past fall was the worst part of “winter.”

officially

December Daylength in Montreal (Time and Date.com)

At least starting on Saturday, days will start getting longer. Remember what sunshine feels like, Montreal?

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