THUNDER BAY — The thunder and lightning that numerous Thunder Bay residents reported Sunday night was just one more indicator of the unusual weather the city has experienced during the entire winter.
December and January were considerably milder than usual, and data released Monday by Environment Canada confirmed that February followed the same trend.
"It was much, much warmer than normal. The [mean] temperature for the month of - 6.1 C is a full six degrees warmer than the long-term average for February, which is -12," said meteorologist Jeff Coulson.
"That's a huge difference, and speaks to the fact that when you look at the breakdown day by day, we just didn't really see all that much in the way of outbreaks of real arctic air."
Coulson said current forecast models show that much of Northwestern Ontario from the Manitoba border to Thunder Bay will likely stay milder than normal through March and into the first half of April.
Total precipitation at Thunder Bay Airport last month was only seven millimetres, or just 26 per cent of the normal amount for February.
At a monitoring station at Hazelwood Lake, only 14 centimetres of snow fell, or about half the typical amount for the month.
