Spring is here — after Canada's warmest winter on record

Spring has officially arrived, after a winter that didn't feel much like one.

The months of December, January and February were the warmest on record in Canada, part of a pattern of unprecedented temperatures across the globe over the past year.

David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, said this past winter could be described as a "cancelled season."

"It often arrives on Halloween and leaves at Easter, and we kept waiting for this one to arrive," he said. 

On average, the temperature over the three-month period was 5.2 C warmer than the norm since Canada began keeping records in 1948, said Phillips.

The previous record was in 2009-10, when it was 4.1 C above the norm. The United States also recorded its warmest winter on record.

The mild weather had a wide range of impacts on everything from winter sports to the economy to the natural world. 

Ski resorts in some regions had a patchy season, outdoor skating rinks were unreliable as the temperature fluctuated and ice roads that serve northern communities were slow to open. 

In B.C., Alberta and the Northwest Territories, more than 100 fires burned through the winter — leading to worries about another wildfire season ahead. 

Copernicus, the European Union's climate monitoring institute, found February was the hottest on record around the world, making it the ninth consecutive month of record temperatures.

A report by Climate Central, a U.S.-based research group, tried to determine to what extent the warm temperatures could be attributed to fossil fuel-driven climate change. It concluded a month or more of abnormal warmth was made at least five times more likely.

The balmy winter caps off a record-setting year around the world.

The World Meteorological Organization confirmed Tuesday that 2023 was the warmest year on record, with an estimated global average near-surface temperature at 1.45 C above the pre-industrial baseline. 

"Never have we been so close — albeit on a temporary basis at the moment — to the 1.5 C lower limit of the Paris Agreement on climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.