Wet Coast Snowfalls Why I Like Them

As a displaced Ontario guy who has lived here since 1970 once again I get to observe the benefits of the wet coast snowfall.

Yesterday morning the whole region was shut down by nearly 30cm of snow which fell overnight. Schools were closed, the university was closed, city buses ran limited routes and even the E&N train was cancelled for the day and of course ever kid in town (regardless of age) hit any kind of snow covered hill with sled, tobaggans and even plastic garbage bags!

Those of us who felt we simply had to shovel the stuff, realized quickly that it was much like pushing around cement as the warming temperature and lightly falling rain had begun the melt process early in the morning. If you lived on a side street you were likely snowed in until afternoon by which time the snowpack had shrunk by about 50%.

This morning of course, the green grass is showing through in many places as the overnight temperatures never did dip below the freezing level, continuing what is known in other parts of the country as a spring melt! This also demonstrates the rationale behind not bothering to put on proper snow tires as you almost never need them on the wet coast.

That is it of course, we now officially have had our winter and we can expect the crocus and daffy's to make an appearance sometime soon.