Feeling warm? Windsor-Essex is losing 2 weeks of snowy, wintery days each winter
Days above 0 C have seen increase in Windsor-Essex, Climate Central analysis finds
In the past decade, cities in Canada have lost weeks' worth of winter snow days each year because of climate change. In their place, days of rain, melt and mud.
That's according to a new analysis by Climate Central, a climate research and communications non-profit.
The southwestern Ontario region that includes Windsor-Essex lost 14 below-zero days as a result of climate change, while Toronto lost 13 days, and even Montreal and Calgary have lost six and five days below zero, respectively, per year.
The report averages data over the last decade. Nanaimo, B.C. topped the list with 18 lost winter days.
Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central, said these recent changes are very noticeable because snow turns to rain when the temperature rises above freezing at 0 C.
"Across Canada, we're seeing the loss of cold winter days because of climate change, and that impacts things like winter sports and recreation, but also our economies, the tourism industry," she said.
"The longer we continue to burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, the worse this problem is going to become."
Dahl said the loss of days is significant — and the data backs up what people are noticing.
"Those experiences when the pond in my backyard used to freeze over for all of winter and I could skate on it and it doesn't anymore," Dahl said. "This data really validates that experience."
Jeff Casey in Windsor is seeing it firsthand.
Loss of family tradition
Winter days meant setting up an ice rink in the backyard – a proud family tradition Casey oversaw for a decade – but now just isn't possible.
"We're not getting cold weather anymore, not like we used to anyways," Casey said.
"In fact this year and last year I haven't even bothered to build one."
While his kids still want him to build a rink, Casey said it's not worth it. In 2022, the last time he built a rink, he said they only got two days of skating in.
Back then, he had even built an ice path from the house right to the rink and is now disheartened by pictures of those memories.
"So, it's quite sad to not be able to do it. We will miss it."
Watch | Here's what loss of winter days means to Windsorites
Casey said growing up, he had many parks and rinks to ice skate and play hockey and wanted his kids to have that same experience — but worries climate change is altering that Canadian culture.
"The wet, soggy, uncomfortable" winters also limit, Casey said, their options for skiing and winter sports.
"I'd much prefer if it were cold where we are still in Canada, which [is] synonymous," he said.
"I need two or three days of -10 C to freeze four inches of water. That's all I need. And we're not getting that."
Good news for grape growers
But for Tom O'Brien, the founder and co-owner of Cooper's Hawk Vineyards in Harrow, this is good news. It means a longer and better growing season with fewer bitterly-cold days
In his vineyard, O'Brien runs a wind machine during cold events that blows the cold air away from the plants and draws in warmer air from up above.
"For the first time in 15 years of growing, we did not run that wind machine last year, thank goodness. I'm happy to never run it, but over the 15 years of growing, we've probably run that machine 100 times," he said.
"The number of snow days, winter days are down dramatically. Our winters seem to be put off every year."
O'Brien says he still remembers the devastating aftermath of the polar vortex in 2014 and 2015, which caused them to lose their entire crop. The past year, with dry hot summers and a balmy, rainy winter was "wonderful."
"If we get rainy winters it allows the water to go into the soil deeper and, then in the summer time with less rain, the plants will produce better grapes."
Debbie Zimmerman, the chief executive officer for the Grape Growers of Ontario, agrees.
"Climate's been changing, no doubt about it. We've had warmer winters, but there's still this occasional winter."
The last severe winter was 2022, Zimmerman said, similar to 2014 and 2015 years where many growers lost a lot of crops.
Innovation to combat climate change
While the changing climate means expansion of the grape growing regions across the country, Zimmerman said they are also innovating to protect the crops against a deep freeze.
Beyond the wind machine to inverse the cold events, Zimmerman says growers are using thermal blankets to keep the buds warm. She said they are also partnering with Brock University to continue the research into this.
"To mitigate this impact of climate change, we're trying to stay as much in tune and ahead of the problem… One of our concerns in the future is obviously how do we sustain this industry which is the backbone of tourism in Ontario."
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