Described as \u2018monster\u2019 or \u2018super\u2019, this year\u2019s El Nino will be good news to Canadians who don\u2019t like the cold, but bad news for anyone who relies on snow for their jobs.<\/p>\n
Climatologist Anthony Shaw, a professor in Brock University\u2019s Department of Geography, says this year\u2019s El Nino is historic, with some of the warmest temperatures on record.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo two El Nino\u2019s are the same. This is looking like it\u2019s going to be the strongest one on record in the last 50 years,\u201d says Shaw, who teaches meteorology and climatology and focuses his research on the impact of climate change on the wine industry.<\/p>\n
He says, in general, Canada will see a warm, wet winter.<\/p>\n
All it takes is a .5-degree deviation from the 30-year-average surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean to be considered a weak El Nino. Anything higher than a 1.5-degree deviation is considered strong. This year\u2019s difference is close to three degrees. That\u2019s warmer than the last major El Nino recorded in 1997\/98, Shaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Canada, it means much heavier rainfall on the west coast than we\u2019ve seen. It might be a mixture of snow and rain depending on the temperature, but definitely an increase in the amount of precipitation in general,\u201d says Shaw.<\/p>\n
He expects El Nino\u2019s warmer temperatures and wet weather to be felt all the way to Ontario and parts of Quebec.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might see fewer days with snowfall in Ontario, which means that winter snow budgets for cities will be in a positive situation because they won\u2019t be plowing or sanding as often,\u201d says Shaw, adding that homeowners should see lower heating bills this winter.<\/p>\n
Ironically, around large bodies of water that normally freeze over such as Lake Erie and Georgian Bay, El Nino might result in more lake effect snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the conundrum about El Nino,\u201d Shaw says. \u201cWe\u2019ll see less ice cover, but with more open water, if you have an arctic air mass coming over, it could mean more lake effect snow.\u201d<\/p>\n
For businesses, golf courses are already feeling the positive effects of a longer playing season, while most ski resorts are still waiting for serious snow. The wine industry, meanwhile, will likely find El Nino is problematic for this year\u2019s ice wine harvest.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Described as \u2018monster\u2019 or \u2018super\u2019, this year\u2019s El Nino will be good news to Canadians who don\u2019t like the cold, but bad news for anyone who relies on snow for their jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":36955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,1,4],"tags":[3641,3642,3643,3645,3646,3644],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36957,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36954\/revisions\/36957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}