Dec '07 - Canada's Weather Guru: A Chat with Alarmist David Phillips

Also, I am concerned about climate change, especially the adverse impact it will have on Canada with increased variability and more weather extremes. However, I am optimistic that Canadians will do the right thing about climate change. It is solvable. We have the capacity to deal with it. We know the problem. The science is strong. We did the right thing with the ozone hole and acid rain.

Dec '08: Phillips admits some of the inconveniently cold truth at a press conference

3) The long winter

Regions across eastern Canada, including Muskoka, were weighed down by as much as 500 cm of snow in 2008. Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa were all close to breaking all-time records. In 2007, eastern Canada had its second-least snowy year on record.
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5) An early winter

The evidence of Canada's early winter is still on the ground in many parts of the country. For the first time since 1971, the entire country had a white Christmas. Vancouver had the whitest Christmas in Canada, an odd feat for a city that has only had five white Christmases in the last 50 years.

6) Hail

Wine growers in the Okanagan Valley were pelted with hail in July, losing almost half their crops. Meanwhile, farmers in Saskatchewan watched in horror as hail fell every single day that same month. In Alberta, corn crops were also cut in half. And not a single orchard in Ontario escaped some degree of hail.

7) Winter's last big storm

On March 8, with spring so close you could almost smell it, eastern Canada was walloped with its biggest storm of the year. As the last flake fell about 40 hours later, parts of Ontario were covered in as much as 52 cm of snow. Quebec City got 40 cm, just three days after getting 35 cm.
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9) Canada, the coldest place on earth

Around the same time residents of PEI were chipping through the ice, Saskatchewan experienced temperatures of – 60 C with the wind chill. Edmonton, at – 45 C, experienced its coldest temperatures in 30 years. For a brief period, Canada was the coldest place on earth. Recess was cancelled in Yellowknife.