Friday, February 8, 2008

Snow accumulation drifts toward record

Leo (July 23 — Aug. 22)

It's as if you have eyes in the back of your head or you are able to hear the thoughts of others. Neptune's influence has put your inner radar on full alert, so use it advantageously.

Gemini (May 21 — June 21)

Your quality of life will be greatly enriched if you learn to employ your good sense of humour to diffuse a source of irritation. And, with time, your tricky quandary will be resolved.

Pisces (Feb. 20 — March 20)

sure, it's nice to feel needed, but not no great if it requires you to sacrifice your freedom, spend money you can't afford and forget all your own important interests. Mind you don't get yourself caught in a predicament.

Scorpio (Oct. 24 — Nov. 22)

The Mercury retrograde is working on getting key components in your strategy back in place, this time with stronger, more efficient links. You're close to escaping the grip of an old problem and will soon see a significant improvement

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Snow accumulation drifts toward record
KEITH BEATY/TORONTO STAR
Students from Glen Ames Senior Public School in the Beach run through the Glen Manor Ravine. They had their work cut out for them with the 33 centimetre dump of snow. Feb. 7 2008.

With 128 cm fallen so far, and more due tomorrow, this winter may go down as the second snowiest

February 08, 2008

Staff Reporter

After two abnormally temperate winters, Jack Frost has returned to Toronto with his pockets full of snow – near-record amounts, to be precise.

Wednesday and yesterday's accumulated snow dump of 33 centimetres pushed this winter's total accumulation to 128 centimetres – 13 centimetres above Toronto's average snowfall for an entire winter.

But while this winter has been snowier than most, the actual amount that remains in town is closer to 50 centimetres because above-seasonal temperatures in January melted 78 centimetres that had accumulated from earlier dumps.

"Our climate tends to fluctuate, especially around the freezing mark. You can see a good snowfall and then five days later it's raining and five degrees. Then the snow disappears," says Geoff Coulson, Toronto-based meteorologist with Environment Canada.

With 128 centimetres this winter, the city has received roughly the same amount of snow since November as it did the previous two winters combined.

The snowiest season on record was the winter of 1937-38 when 207.4 centimetres fell on the city.

More recently, the winter of 1971-72 received the most snow with 136.1 centimetres falling between Nov. 1, 1971, and Feb. 28, 1972 – more than the winter of 1998-99, infamous for then-mayor Mel Lastman's decision to call in the military to dig the city out from a January snowfall.

An expected snowfall of between 4 and 10 centimetres tomorrow might make this winter the second snowiest on record. That spot is currently held by 1951-52, which received 176.1 centimetres.

But meteorologists aren't willing to predict whether this winter will go down in history.

"This winter has shown it's hard to keep any (weather) trend going for any length of time," said Coulson, adding that February is expected to have average daily highs of between four and five degrees below freezing.

"I'm sure we're going to see more snow before the end of the winter. But (the last two days' snowfall) may end up being the biggest event of this winter. To get another one of this magnitude, who can say?"

Toronto's snow removal budget for 2008 is $67 million.

Should this winter break accumulation records, the city would have to dip into auxiliary funds to clear streets and sidewalks.

"We have historically been budgeting for four to five plowing events. We are at that now, so if we continue to see the snow that we've seen this winter we'll definitely be putting pressure on that budget," said Myles Currie, director of transportation services with the city.

Currie said yesterday's storm has likely cost the city $5 million in plowing and salting. Last Friday's storm, which dumped 20 centimetres, likely cost another $4 million to clean up.

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