It wasn’t the spring showers Londoners usually expect in mid-April, but Monday’s snowfall was one for the record books.
It wasn’t the spring showers Londoners usually expect in mid-April, but Monday’s snowfall was one for the record books.
Nine centimeters of snow fell across the London region — breaking the record of 7.9 cm for April 18, set in 1947 — according to Environment Canada, making the rare well-into-spring blizzard a small piece of local history.
“Given that it’s the record, I’d say it’s unusual to get (that much),” said Gerald Chang, a meteorologist with the federal weather agency. “But snow isn’t unusual in itself because it is still April, and spring is a transition season.”
The snowfall prompted Environment Canada to issue a weather advisory as area roads became potentially dangerous for drivers. Tuesday, there was a new warning of strong winds across the region for the afternoon and into the evening.
The Environment Canada advisory for London, Parkhill, Strathroy, Komoka, and parts of Middlesex County warned of strong wind gusting up to 80 kilometres/hour. “Gusty winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break,” Environment Canada official said, adding “local power outages will also be possible.”
With the morning snow expected to turn into rain or flurries around noon, the weather agency forecasts a daytime Tuesday high of 3 C. Temperatures are expected to drop to a low of -4 C overnight.
So, are we done with winter? Not so fast. Chang said the region could see more wintry weather in the coming weeks. “It’s not a good time to completely put away the shovels, even though we’ve reached 20 C a week ago,” he said.