Spring is less than three weeks away, clocks go ahead this weekend, but frigid and below seasonal temperatures continue to grip the province of Ontario.
And we’ll be waiting a while for it to warm up. The swings in temperature and precipitation that we’ve experienced through winter are expected to carry into the spring months. And keep an eye out for nor’easters heading our way in March.
There is some good news. According to Chris Scott, Weather Network Chief Meteorologist “*While the vice-like grip of arctic air will give much of the country a lingering winter headache to start March, the guarantee of rapidly lengthening days and a higher sun angle mean the first tastes of warmer weather are only a few weeks away.*”
With spring in sight, here are a few interesting facts about the winter that added the term ‘Polar Vortex’ to our vocabulary:
1. Niagara Falls froze to a stop — [images here](http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/niagara-falls-freezes-to-a-stop-slideshow/american-falls-shown-niagara-falls-photo-224806120.html?format=embed)
2. The ice coverage on the Great Lakes topped out at just over 88 percent frozen over on Feb. 13. This hasn’t happened in nearly two decades — [article here](http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/nasa-image-shows-extensive-ice-coverage-of-the-great-lakes/22572/) & [images here](http://www.weather.com/news/great-lakes-are-now-88-percent-frozen-photos-20140218)
3. On December 31, 2014 Winnipeg Manitoba was colder than the surface of Mars (reaching a low of -53) — [article here](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-deep-freeze-as-cold-as-uninhabited-planet-1.2479967)
4. U.S. National Weather Service meteorologists shows the winter of 2014 is one of the most miserable on record –[article here](http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/this-winter-is-miserable-meteorologists-have-confirmed-it-1.1707717#ixzz2v1ddU8E5)
