Nova Scotia spring, why have you foresaken us?
Cassie Williams | CBC News | Posted: March 20, 2015 4:04 PM | Last Updated: March 20, 2015
Seriously, we're ready for spring — and stop rubbing it in Vancouver
You know it's been a bad winter when your meteorologist starts showing up to story meetings with a bag over his head.
However, CBC Nova Scotia meteorologist Kalin Mitchell is just the messenger. As much as we'd like someone to blame, even the scientists at Environment Canada admit their call for a "little milder and more rain than snow" kind of winter for the East Coast was way off base.
Environment Canada's senior meteorologist Dave Phillips was sheepish that all of his scientific prognosticating was beaten by the folksy Farmers' Almanac prediction for this winter.
"It's hard for me to admit — the one forecasting service that got this right was the Farmers' Almanac. They talked about this being the T. rex of winter," Phillips said during a Maritime Noon interview.
Spring technically starts at 7:45 p.m. this evening, but Halifax looks more like Hoth, the ice planet from Star Wars, in the grips of winter.
There's been equal parts snow rage, community commiseration, and complete and utter defeat this winter.
On the snow rage front, we've heard about the driver of a small snow plow allegedly taking a shot — as in gunshot — at a Halifax Transit bus after a traffic dispute.
CBC web writers and developers have had some fun this winter, sort of "if I don't laugh I'll cry" kind of thing.
CBC's hashtag #WinterISurrender broke the internet (apologies to Kim Kardashian's butt) with people in Atlantic Canada sharing their photos and videos. The hashtag saw major news organizations jumping on the bandwagon, sharing pictures and stories from people fed up with winter.
Nova Scotia writer Cat Tunney's cheeky take on "beach envy" was good for a chuckle and helped the snowbound staffer deal with her "inner Jack Nicholson from The Shining" due to the stir craziness that comes from too much winter.
No doubt it's been one of the worst winters I've ever experienced.
My husband cracked three ribs following a fall on our icy step. My gleeful dive into a snowdrift, that ended abruptly and painfully when I landed on a buried Muskoka chair, left a bruise that many in the office are mistaking for a partial sleeve tattoo.
Deep down in my heart, I know the winter can't last. But thinking back to two years ago when I was able to swim in the admittedly cold lake near my house on March 31 — it's hard to believe this is the same city.
I'm usually all for winter: I love to ski, play hockey and my feet are always warm, but this winter has been something else. We've had so much snow, even the ski hills have had to close a few times.
Unless Nova Scotia starts breeding tauntans (a domesticated species of snow lizard that roams the snowy plains of Hoth), I plan on hunkering down with Netflix and riding this thing out until summer.