A tale of two winters: Blooms in Vancouver, blizzards in Toronto

One city is in bloom, while another freezes under a blanket of snow.

Canada's extreme winters bring all kinds of surprises along the country's vast and varied landscape, and this year, those contrasts are especially sharp between two of its biggest cities, Vancouver and Toronto.

Vancouver has experienced an unusually warm winter, on track to be its first without snow in 43 years.

The city is already looking lush and green after one of its warmest Januarys on record. Some of its famed cherry blossoms were blooming by the middle of last month, and have since been joined by daffodils and other flowers.

A meteorologist told The Canadian Press the unusual warm weather, rain and occasional sunshine contributed to early plant growth, adding that it has not been getting cold enough to freeze plants overnight.

Elsewhere in B.C., Sandspit and Bella Bella exceeded record daily highs this week.

Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon told CBC British Columbia that the mild conditions are being driven by repeated ridges of high pressure, creating stable air over B.C., resulting in winter weather only lasting for a week or two in many parts of the province.

"This winter in general has been very abnormal," he said.

Not everyone is thrilled. The heat has melted skating rinks, closed ski hills and raised concerns about the potential of a deep freeze damaging early blooming plants — as well as the impacts of climate change.

But some 3,400 kilometres east in Toronto, some residents would gladly swap their deep freeze for an early glimpse of spring.

The city was hammered by heavy snow and winter storms through much of January.

On Jan. 25, Toronto Pearson Airport recorded 46 centimetres of snow, its highest daily snowfall on record.

That brought the January snowfall total to 88.2 centimetres, which Environment Canada previously told CBC News is "the snowiest January and snowiest month since records began in 1937."

Trudy Kidd, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, told CBC Toronto that the polar vortex was the culprit behind the late-January freezing temperatures, describing it as "a swirling pool of cold air" that’s typically parked over the Arctic but can "leak" down to more southern regions when it weakens.